Malice is a legal term referring to a party's intention to do injury to another party. Malice is either expressed or implied. Express malice occurs when a party only gives notice of the intention to commit a crime. Implied malice occurs when, in the course of nefarious or unlawful doings, a party causes the death of another party or does harm to another. Malice, in a legal sense, may be inferred from various evidence, depending on the nature of the case. This article is about law in society. ... Injury is damage or harm caused to the structure or function of the body caused by an outside agent or force, which may be physical or chemical. ... Death is either the cessation of life in a living organism or the state of the organism after that event. ...

In many kinds of cases, malice must be found to exist in order to convict (for example malice is an element of the crime of Murder in many jusrisdictions). In other kinds of cases, a finding of malice allows for greater damages, or for punitive damages. The legal concept of malice is most common in Anglo-american law, and in legal systems derived from the English common law system. Punitive damages are damages awarded to a successful plaintiff in a civil action, over and above the amount of compensatory damages, to: punish the conduct of the civil defendant; deter the civil defendant from committing the invidious act again; and deter others from doing the same thing. ... This article concerns the common-law legal system, as contrasted with the civil law legal system; for other meanings of the term, within the field of law, see common law (disambiguation). ...

See also Evil. Evil is a term describing that which is regarded as morally bad, intrinsically corrupt, wantonly destructive, inhumane, or wicked. ...