"Is there really such a thing as malevolence?" - A. R. of North Carolina

Not really. There are people who themselves believe they are "bad" or "evil" because of what they have been told (or, more precisely, because of the social messages they get turned into by the experiences and circumstances of their lives). And I have met and known intimately some of the most "malevolent" men our society can produce, both mentally and socially deranged, during my many years of imprisonment. Yet, I have never met anyone who I'd call "evil" or even "malevolent", though I've certainly met many who'd like nothing better than have everyone believe that's what they were. These people are only fulfilling roles created for them by a diseased society. They commonly love their family, and behave according to a sense of right and wrong far more rigid and unyielding than the most zealous Christian hypocrite. They are deluded and diseased, but not evil, or malevolent; which is to say, they don't set out to do harm for the sake of doing harm alone; nobody ever does. Instead, in their mind, they are giving people what they deserve, or taking what they deserve from people.

To a terrorist, Americans are evil. To a rapist, women are sluts who deserve to be raped. To a child molester, society is sick and doesn't understand. And to society, criminals are malevolent and need to be punished. It's all the same, but it's not malevolence - it's only ignorance.