This bold new book proposes a completely new discipline - "the psychology of malefaction," a frank study of the role of evil in human hehavior that does not explain an act of murder, for example, as simply a symptom of the murderer's psychosis. Having been long successful in explaining psychopathic behavior, the author maintains, psychology has in a sense tended to excuse the destructive acts of the psychopath, or at least has appeared to do so.

Rieber reexamines the various phenomena of family violence, violence in films and television, modern war, and serial killers regarding them as wicked, not merely insane. This provocative book rethinks the nagging problem of evil as it manifests itself in our society, rigorously questioning to what degree persons must be responsible for - and held accountable for - their actions.