Call for Book Chapter Proposals “Reconstructing Gotham: Crime and Safety as a Reflection of the Built Environment”

Vernon Press invites book chapter proposals for a forthcoming edited volume, “Reconstructing Gotham: Crime and Safety as a Reflection of the Built Environment”.

Built Environment

Reconstructing Gotham: Crime and Safety as a Reflection of the Built Environment explores the contemporary applications of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED).  As a theoretical construct, CPTED asserts that criminal offending can be influenced and, to a certain degree, controlled through the manipulation, control, and design of the built environment in which offending might otherwise occur.  CPTED began to emerge as a crime prevention strategy during the 1960s and 1970s and was strongly associated with the early work of Jane Jacobs, C. Ray Jeffery, Oscar Newman and other pioneers in the field.  Since that time, efforts to control criminal propensity through manipulation and control of the physical environment have been successfully implemented in a wide variety of different settings and contexts. 

'Reconstructing Gotham: Crime and Safety as a Reflection of the Built Environment' is the latest in the Interdisciplinary Built Environment series, which attempts to examine the built environment through a multidisciplinary lens.  Prior volumes in the series focused on topics as diverse as ethics in environmental design, participatory space in contemporary cities, and environmental design for health and wellbeing.  Reconstructing Gotham: Crime and Safety as a Reflection of the Built Environment will continue the series tradition of taking a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the built environment.  However, this volume will also expand the series by venturing into an evaluation of the role and purpose of the built environment in ameliorating participation in criminal activity and the broader harm caused by such participation. 

Entries from a variety of disciplines focusing on the evaluation and deconstruction of CPTED are encouraged.  While diverse entries pertaining to all aspects of applied CPTED are welcome, we are particularly interested in chapters that are intended to examine the following topics:

Foundational Aspects:

• The History and Development of CPTED

• First Generation Versus Second Generation CPTED

• CPTED Foundational Concepts and Key Issues

• Contributions of Pioneering Theorists and Practitioners

Contextual Aspects:

• CPTED and Homeland Security/Terrorism

• Law Enforcement Agencies and CPTED

• Police Training Efforts Relating to CPTED

• Challenges to the Effective Implementation of CPTED

• Legal Aspects of CPTED

• CPTED Case Studies: Lessons Learned

• The Future of CPTED

Applied Aspects:

• CPTED in the K-12 and/or Higher Education Environment

• CPTED in Nonprofits and/or Religious Institutions  

• Public Facilities and/or Government Agencies and CPTED

• Rural Versus Urban Aspects of CPTED

• Diverse Perspectives on CPTED (Economic, Sociological, Historical, and/or Psychological)

This volume invites both individual and co-authored chapters consisting of between 6,000 and 10,000 words for inclusion in the final publication.  Please note that all submissions must be original unpublished works that do not include any AI-generated content and that are not currently under publication consideration elsewhere.  If you are interested in proposing a chapter for consideration in the volume, please forward a short (500-word) proposal, a brief biographical overview for all authors, and a list of anticipated key terms to Dr. Jason Jolicoeur at jason.jolicoeur@mnsu.edu or Dr. Michael Birzer at michael.birzer@wichita.edu by January 30, 2026.  Questions regarding the prospective volume can be sent to either of the emails provided above.