In recent years, the presence of a general construct of criminal behavior has gained widespread research attention. The presence of a general construct of deviance has not, however, been directly investigated in sex offenders, perhaps due to the presumption of criminal specialization among this group of offenders. The current study sought to address this gap in the literature by examining the criminal behavior of 388 convicted sex offenders via semi-structured interview. Participants were interviewed between April 1994 and June 2000; variables under investigation included official criminal history data, age of onset of adult criminality, annual frequency of criminal activity, and annual variety of criminal activity. Results of confirmatory factor analyses indicated that a general construct of deviance could explain the onset, frequency, and variety of criminal activity in adulthood. However, a general construct of deviance could not explain the frequency of sexual crimes committed by child molesters. The findings thus suggest that the criminal behavior of sexual aggressors of women is versatile, while the criminal behavior of child molesters is more specific. Future research should focus on examining criminality factors that potentially interact with low self-control in an effort to explain the development of criminal activity. Tables, figures, appendix, notes, references