You can look at what actually happens in abandoned malls - bored teenagers and college students calling themselves "urban explorers" check them out and engage i

You can look at what actually happens in abandoned malls - bored teenagers and college students calling themselves "urban explorers" check them out and engage in some graffiti in a long abandoned site or trysts at most. Gangs would find them goddamned useless as territory because there is no income stream there. There isn't anyone to make money selling drugs to or johns for clients to pimp out. That is why the damn mall closed in the first place! The low traffic ironically makes it a poor place to lay low as "I saw some guy enter an hour or so ago" becomes useful instead of vague and useless. That similar noticability and lack of good pretexts makes it a poor choice for a meth lab compared to a random trailer or basement. They wind up such an economic wasteland that they aren't even good for criminal purposes which is vaguely impressive. That is essentially the one "upside" of their separation from residences. They aren't like the Opium Den/Crackhouse/Methhouse because they lack the attractiveness to be an attractive nuisance.