1.1 The potentially accused

People who tended to be accused of being a witch generally were people who 'successfully' had got the backs up of their more 'normal' neighbours.

They were people experienced as behaving in irritating ways not accepted as 'normal' and acceptable. This might be as simple by making regularly threats or verbal attacks. But success, different cultural and social class backgrounds could provoke that irritation as well. Think of Jews, gypsies, homosexuals or strange behaviours triggered by mental illness or alienating a 'normal' community.

Crucial in all these cases is that these people are seen as pointless to talk to especially because they seem to refuse to become 'normal'. Even when they do change their behaviour, they seem unable to communicate this effectively to the satisfaction of their perpetrators. Often they do have inadequate communication and conflict handling skills.

In other words, the irritation combined with being seen as pointless to talk to is one of the driving forces behind trying to get somebody clamped down.