The sex offenders admitted to having engaged in either forceful sexual acts with adult females or sex with children. The nonoffenders were matched in ages, intelligence, and socioeconomic class with the offenders, and they reported being exclusively heterosexual and having never engaged in any type of sexual offense. The sexual materials involved in the inquiry were magazines, films, or videotapes that depict consenting sex between adults, a man forcing sex upon a woman, and sex between an adult male and a child. Offenders were also asked about their use of such materials as incitors for their deviant behavior. Twenty-three rapists and 51 men who molested children other than their own reported significantly greater use of materials than was indicated by either incest offenders or nonoffender controls. Rapists and child molesters reported frequent use of these materials while they prepared themselves to commit an offense. Current use was significantly related to the chronicity of their sexual offending (as revealed by the number of victims) among the child molesters and to laboratory-assessed sexual preferences for children by the heterosexual child molesters. 3 tables and 40 references (Author abstract modified)