The structure of tenants in shopping centres has been changing in recent years, with services taking up more and more space. As a result, malls are becoming public spaces where people spend their free time, which also has negative consequences in the form of disorder, especially among young people. However, building security does not have an effective way to prevent teenagers from engaging in problematic activities, so in some cases it works with non-profit organisations to prevent risky behaviour. In general, juvenile crime is on the rise. Compared to last year, the Police recorded an increase of almost 25%.
Today, department stores are no longer just a place where we can buy everything we need. They have become a place to meet and spend leisure time, and this applies especially to young people. They use the free Wi-Fi, air-conditioned spaces or public toilets. And the offer of bottomless cups in restaurants allows them to spend time eating for several hours.
According to Daniel Velčovský from ABIS, a company that provides comprehensive building management including security, some parties often have fun at the expense of others and annoy other customers or security guards. The latter, however, does not have sufficient powers to effectively prevent them from doing so. “Usually it’s more about small activities, such as throwing stones or spitting over the railings of the higher floors, playing loud music, running around the passages and generally disturbing other customers,” says Velčovský, who is in charge of security at a shopping centre in Prague’s Žižkov district. “The moment there is a confrontation with the security guards, it becomes fun and a kind of challenge for the youngsters. For example, when their colleagues repeatedly violate the rules of the shopping centre, they are escorted out of the building and they return through another entrance and try to escape. The youth also often film such disturbances and create content for social networks from this ‘fun’,” he adds. They also seek videos to share on the networks from various tenants of the mall, which often borders on cyberbullying.
“In our experience, repression has long proven ineffective in dealing with conflicts with teenagers. Therefore, in some cases, the security service cooperates with non-profit organizations that deal with the prevention of problematic teenage behavior,” Velčovský says. Field social workers go to shopping centres to address at-risk groups and talk to them about the rules of behaviour in shopping centres, alternative ways of spending leisure time or the activities of low-threshold clubs. They provide young people with the necessary information, assist them in communicating with the authorities, act as mediators in conflicts, focus on preventing risky behaviour and support them in difficult moments.
“We also try to meet regularly with the management of the shopping centre to discuss mutual cooperation. In the past, a youth work workshop was held for the security staff, and we would like to offer a similar workshop again to the OC, or we would like to establish a better and closer relationship with the security staff themselves. We also have stickers with the QR code of our service placed in the OC, which interested people can read and ask for support and help,” explains Julie Kretinina, a field worker with Beztíže, an organization that works with youth in Prague 2, 3 and 10.
According to Daniel Velčovský, the behaviour of minors in the shopping centre is improving thanks to the work of social workers, but prevention programmes still fail to reach everyone. Among the groups of juveniles there are some really troubled individuals who are capable of committing criminal activities. “In our experience, these were organised thefts, where a group of 15 to 16 individuals would surround a passer-by and rob him of his money,” Velčovský says. But when such an incident happens, the powers of the facility’s security guards reach essentially the same level as any other citizen. Thanks to the security guards, however, the police arrive on the scene on time and have CCTV footage to catch and identify the perpetrators.
In 2023, the Police have already registered a total of over 400 cases of theft by minors or juveniles. This is almost a 25% increase in criminal activity compared to the same period, between January and August 2022, when 328 thefts by minors occurred. However, streetwork organizations do not plan to slack off in their prevention programs and are trying to expand activities related to mental health care and social safety of juveniles by collaborating with other institutions. “The recent experience of the clubs shows the need for more intensive cooperation with schools and multidisciplinary, coordinated cooperation between health professionals, psychologists and therapists, including work with the family and people close to the child,” says Martina Zikmundová, director of the Czech Streetwork Association.
