Peter Dale is the principal author of Dangerous Families, which was first published in 1986. In it, he described an assessment and therapeutic approach to working with child abuse developed by the Rochdale Special Unit of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) in Britain. In 1986, Peter became the Manager of the NSPCC Child Protection Team in East Sussex. He is also a Visiting Research Fellow in Social Policy and Social Work at Sussex University. He is currently completing a PhD study at the University of Brighton entitled: Clients' and therapists' perceptions of the psychotherapeutic process: A study of adults abused as children.

This interview was conducted whilst I worked as part of the East Sussex NSPCC Team for three months in 1993. This experience was made possible with the support of a Creswick Foundation Fellowship in Family Relations and Child Development and the Department of Social Work, Monash University.

In the interview, Peter discusses the changes in his thinking and practice since the publication of Dangerous Families.