Elements of the Crime of Malice

Malice in Violent Crime

Malice aforethought refers to a deliberate premeditated intention to cause harm and/or a neglect for the well being of the victim of a crime. According to West Virginia Homicide Jury instruction protocol, this form of malice does not require the express or implied hatred of a specific person or number of people but can be demonstrated by a deliberate cruelty or lack of compassion as determined by four main factors: mitigating circumstances, justification, intent to kill or harm or any other evidence which stands against the implication of malice. Malice aforethought is malice specifically demonstrated prior to the crime which is not a result of the circumstances of the crime itself.

Malice may also come into play when submitting information for purposes of official record, job applications or peer reviews. If the information you provide is inaccurate without your knowledge that it is so, you are negligent. If you provide inaccurate information with the intent to defraud or alter the results of a given process, your actions are malicious. Both may have criminal implications as negligence is not a defense but malice will normally carry more negative implications.

Transferred malice occurs when there is intent to harm a given person or group which results in the harm of another or others during the process of the crime. For instance, if a group of gang members intends to exact revenge against a rival gang member by firing weapons at them and innocent bystanders are harmed or killed by this gunfire, the malice aforethought in place against the intended target or targets is transferred to the inadvertent victims.

Malice in the world of cyber crime can refer to a given program or piece of computer code which is designed to attack or destroy a computer or a network. This "malicious" entity can then be used by an attacker or released on its own to strike randomly. The creation of the code itself is malicious and the only purpose of that code is to cause harm. The term malice can also refer to the way a website or program is designed to allow or disallow users to cause harm to one another. If the site or program is improperly designed, it will open the door to harmful or malicious activities perpetrated on its users.

When a criminal states his intention to harm and then carries it out, he is demonstrating expressed malice. Implied malice takes place when a harmful intent is in place but it has not been made clear by the perpetrator; for instance, if a drug company subjects its new medicine to testing and a series of negative results arise. In the interest of bringing the drug to market, these results are hidden away from the public eye and the drug is released while the facts about its potential effects are kept secret. Should some of the patients taking this new drug fall ill, the drug company would be guilty of implied malice for withholding what it knew about the potential hazards.