>>>You've strayed off the path. This was about a girl - aged 13 going to the mall by herself. Going out in a group is a very different thing.
>>
>>Why should "the mall" be so terrible. Usually (here) they have security wandering about and provide a more benign environment than some high streets.
>
>Well, around here, malls are where fights break out and stabbings etc. happen. Most often often outside the mall.

And here we come to the crux of our differences over this. That's just not true around here. There's one downtown shopping mall that has a far amount of crime (it's built over a major commuter rail station, so has lots and lots of foot traffic), but the malls are pretty much all in the suburbs and all pretty safe, with shoplifting the most serious crime most of the time.

Tamar