>>>>>>>This is about 2 miles from where I live. New mall, looks like many across the nation.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/3287203/
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Yeah, malls are really a safe place for your 12-year old to be walking around alone.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>On the other hand they may learn to see and judge a problem and move away from it. In a place full of security guards and cctv.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I see from the article they are proposing a curfew. Several towns in the UK are introducing this.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2461895/Cornish-town-of-Redruth-in-curfew-trial-to-combat-rowdy-youths-at-night.html
>>>>>
>>>>>Don't disagree there, but that is not "on the other hand" really. It's more of "in addition to." My point, if it wasn't clear enough before, is that the mall is not the nice safe haven for their kids that a lot of people would like to think it is.
>>>>
>>>>Or at least _that_ mall isn't. I think if there were a rash of incidents like this in malls across the country, someone would notice and we'd be seeing a lot of media jumping on it.
>>>>
>>>>Seems to me you're overgeneralizing based on the available data.
>>>
>>>Overgeneralize this.
>>>
>>>http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/team4/10339095/detail.html
>>>
>>>Just one found in about 3 seconds. There were about 2.5 million more. Let me know and I'll post some of them.
>>>
>>>How is that nice ivory tower you seem to live in?
>>
>>
>>our ivory tower is good Jay. But actually its about concern for our children and a different way of addressing that.
>>
>> BTW I am against curfews. I think its wrong to treat a whole group of people as if they are all offenders.
>
>From what I can tell, you are a fairly decent guy, and you are not elitist and disillusioned as some seem to be. What is the solution then? You seem to at least agree that there could be a problem with letting your 12-year-old wander the malls alone. Or at least I think you do.

Ahh the tricky question.

Well one thing I would like to see is police out of their cars and patrolling the street by foot (or bicycle) getting involved in the local community. Not turning up and cracking head when there is a problem but being in an area before it happens. One ofthe problems we have here is that police stats are all about arrests and crime solving. Good preventative action doesn't show upin the stats so always gets hit by budget cuts.

Another thing is why are kids hanging out in the malls doing nothing and ending up in trouble. They need to be occupied. Set up centres where they can get involved in all sorts of activities and pay them to go there.If you sign in at the start of a session and sign out at the end you get your money. They could learn skills or just play or hang out with a coffee and their friends. It'll be cheaper in the long run than building more supermax prisons .

Nick