ABSTRACT
This chapter utilizes the familiar terms and concepts in crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) evolved from initial theorizing via practical application. They have rarely been explicitly scrutinized as tools for thinking, action, and communication. All of the core concepts of CPTED fail to distinguish between nature of action and qualities of place, for example, defense and defensibility or surveillance and surveillability. Ultimately, CPTED needs a controlled vocabulary with sharpened concepts. Designers must combine discipline and rigor with exploration and creativity while covering material, informational, and social dimensions. After all, it is the people stuff in particular that makes or breaks CPTED. Both the professional discipline of CPTED and the applied academic research that supports it are held back from making the progress and the practical contribution that they are potentially capable of delivering.
