Malicious Intent : A Writer's Guide to How Murderers, Robbers, Rapists and Other Criminals Think

Howdunit Series

by Sean P. MacTire

Writers will learn how to create their own unforgettable villains with the help of this guide to criminal psychology. Mactire, author of Victims of Domestic Violence, explores the fact and fiction of who these people are, why they commit their crimes, how they choose their victims and how people catch them.

Genres: Writing, Reference, Nonfiction, True Crime, Crafts

240 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1995

Reviews

[Jeannine Morin]

🪱The worm in this book was:The face of evil.
This book had alot of good points, but also really bad ones. I did appreciate the section on how woman rape too! I had just said in one of my reviews that you don't find information like that in books usually. A great majority of people who are caught blame satan, demonic possession or mental illness. I just watched the movie nefarious recently which was all about that battle. I do find books like this lack alot of knowledge about why someone commits crimes, many forget to mention how pathetic someone is, or that someone with low self esteem can be dangerous. Or that pedophiles believe that they are still children too thanks to that whole inner child philosophy. They either tend to leave alot out, or are only educated to a certain point, or are afraid to list things that others have deemed a secret, because alot refuse to believe that females can do wrong. The worm was the phrase the face of evil because what these people do isn't evil, sad, upsetting, stolen from the demonic realm, and pathetic, are most certainly the words to be used and cruel. But the truth is you could look the devil right in the face and never even know, because that is his greatest power. There are many who have seen it, like in the movie nefarious and have denied it because they know, if they do acknowledge it, they have to accept that it's real, and think by not acknowledging it they are blocking that power, but denying has only ever made him stronger.

[Holly]

This book was written 30 years ago and it reads like it. Many statements by the author come across to me now as stereotypes and assumptions. As a layperson, I would be interested to hear what today’s criminal experts think of this book. And, as the book was published before 9/11 and the opioid crisis, I would also be very interested to hear what the author’s thoughts on terrorism and drug addiction are today. Less useful as a writing reference and more interesting as a time capsule.

[Juanita]

Spelling and grammar errors and a generally poor writing style made this book difficult to read. The author makes many statements of "fact" that are not substantiated in any way. Includes a bibliography, but no footnotes to indicate where he obtained his information. Contains a lot of historical references, but despite the book's subtitle, not a lot of insight into how criminals think.

[Michael]

A pretty straight foward examination of the criminal mind with a lot of bullet points describing the different subclasses of crime. I would imagine it would be a useful reference for the crime/mystery writer.

[T.M. Carper]

Interesting, but repetitive compared to some other references. Borrow it from your library, but it's not one I would bother tracking down on eBay to buy.