Confronting Malice

The worldview of violent sex offenders is so alien to many of us that to consider them in detail, up close and personal, can feel much like going down the rabbit hole. This work is a personal/professional memoir written by a clinical psychologist who followed this rabbit hole deeply. Working with sex offenders, psychopaths, sadists, and other offenders for forty years, Anna C. Salter learned lessons about malice, where it comes from, and what it’s really like to come face-to-face with what much of society considers to be true evil. This book is a highly personal, nonfiction account exploring the nature of malice and includes the impact of working with malice on those exposed to it. Throughout her career, Dr. Sadler never lost her sense of incredulity at the sometimes harrowing worldviews she encountered, but nor will she ever forget what she learned there, or what it was like to finally leave it behind.

Anna C. Salter is a clinical psychologist and has written eight previous books including five mysteries and three nonfiction works. She lives in Tennessee.

Anna C. Salter
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 198
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliography
Copyright Date: 2025
pISBN: 978-1-4766-9689-8
eISBN: 978-1-4766-5621-2
Imprint: Exposit

Acknowledgments vi
Preface 1
Introduction 3

Chapter 1. The Coliseum 11
Chapter 2. Beginnings 16
Chapter 3. On Malice 25
Chapter 4. Nemesis 31
Chapter 5. The Country Doc 43
Chapter 6. How Psychopaths Think 52
Chapter 7. Working with Psychopaths 63
Chapter 8. The Interview 73
Chapter 9. On Feeling Safe: Where Does Safety Lie? 84
Chapter 10. Grief for a Lost Son 93
Chapter 11. Three Years Later 102
Chapter 12. On Connection 108
Chapter 13. On Being Safe: Guns and Poses 114
Chapter 14. The Social Contract 121
Chapter 15. Homes and Houses 135
Chapter 16. Hope 144
Chapter 17. On the Problem with Power 150
Chapter 18. The Conman and the Courts 158
Chapter 19. Society and Sex Offenders 172
Chapter 20. Lessons 179

Epilogue 183
Chapter Notes 187
Bibliography 189