PETER K SMITH is Professor of Psychology and Head of the Unit for School and Family Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London, U.K.  He received his B.Sc at the University of Oxford and his PhD from the University of Sheffield.  He is co-author of Understanding Children’s Development (Blackwell, 1988, 1991, 1998, 2002), co-editor of School Bullying: Insights and Perspectives (Routledge, 1994), Tackling Bullying in Your School: A Practical Handbook for Teachers (Routledge, 1994), The Nature of School Bullying (Routledge, 1999), The Family System Test (Routledge, 2001), Blackwell Handbook of Childhood Social Development (Blackwell, 2002), editor of Violence in Schools: The Response in Europe (Routledge, 2002), and co-editor of Bullying in Schools: How Successful can Interventions be? (Cambridge UP, 2004). 

He directed the Sheffield Anti-Bullying project (1991-94), advised on the government pack Don’t Suffer in Silence (1994, 2nd edition 2000), and coordinated European Commission funded projects ‘The Nature and Prevention of Bullying’ (1997-2001) (www.gold.ac.uk/tmr) and ‘Violence in Schools’ (1999-2002) (www.gold.ac.uk/connect).  He chaired the Research and Advisory Group of the Anti-Bullying Alliance (2006-08), and was (2007-2009) a partner in a DAPHNE project ‘An investigation into forms of peer-peer bullying at school in pre-adolescent and adolescent groups: new instruments and preventing strategies’.  He is currently Chair of COST Action IS0801 on Cyberbullying: coping with negative and enhancing positive uses of new technologies, in relationships in educational settings (www.gold.ac.uk/is0801/), and is carrying out research on the effectiveness of anti-bullying strategies in schools, for the DCSF.