A total of 100 graduate social work students and 103 qualified social work fieldwork teachers were invited to participate in the study. The final sample consisted of 53 social workers and 49 social-work students. Subjects were asked to state their opinions as to why men sexually offend against children. A Grounded Theory methodology was applied to the reasons given for sexual offenders and to a set of eight categories derived from the data. These categories were then used to compare the types of reasons given by the two subject groups. The results suggest that both social workers and students (within group analysis) were more likely to cite power/control as a reason for offending. Social workers also made significantly more attributions than students. There were no other differences in the frequency with which reasons were cited between qualified and unqualified social workers, although gender did emerge as a significant factor. Power and control emerged as the most important differentiating factor, with females tending to be more likely to give an answer that fits into this category. Sexual motivation was the next major reason on which differences were found, with females being less likely to explain the occurrence of sexual offending by reference to this factor. The research, educational, and clinical implications of these findings are discussed. 2 tables and 34 references