D.Litt. et Phil / This study has aimed at exploring the narratives of perpetrators of child sexual abuse within a social constructionist research approach. Tape-recorded conversations were held with twelve participants who were engaged in a treatment programme at Childline Johannesburg and Childline KwaZulu Natal. The conversations with these men served to punctuate the participants' own experiences both in childhood and throughout the course of their adolescent and adult lives in order to elicit meaning and understanding of their offending behaviour. These narratives were compared to the traditional empirical research literature. The narratives highlighted some similarities to the traditional research literature; however, various differences were also noted. The similarities pertain particularly to: their experiences of having had traumatic and disruptive childhoods; an apparent lack of empathy for the victim; the employment of a wide range of rationalisations in order to explain their offences; a lack of self-esteem; a dearth of sex education in their home environment. Differences between narratives and the traditional research literature encompassed: the role of alcohol as a causal factor in offending; the belief in the abused-abuser hypothesis; the notion that most offenders begin their aberrant pattern of offending in adolescence; an absence of the popular stereotype that paedophiles are sexually and/or physically attracted to children. The participants in this study indicated an emotional attraction to their victims.