The word evil has been bandied about by the current president Bush more than any other American politician. Too often and too easily. Usually, you hear the word used less frequently, and often to describe someone or an action that defies understanding or whose horrific effects are mind-boggling in scope. Reading through some essays in the online publication Demokratiya, I came across a review of a recent book devoted to the topic, and expected to find a compelling and complex consideration of the topic, but came away disappointed, for the reviewer came up with an unequivocal answer to an inherently complicated topic. You would not expect such an answer from a philosopher or writer. Think of Fyodor Dostoevsky's great detective novel Crime and Punishment.
http://www.democratiya.com/review.asp?reviews_id=80
In any event, this is a topic that I considered several times while reading and writing about it in graduate school, only to come away feeling frustrated in not feeling I got a grip on it. Only after I graduated did I come across what I considered a thoughtful, clear presentation of the concept and from what perspectives it can be addressed by Adam Morton, a philosopher, who wrote a brief, lucid book about the topic for Routledge's Thinking in Action series of books. If anyone has an interest in this topic, I would recommend reading this book.
http://www.amazon.com/Evil-Thinking-Action-Adam-Morton/dp/0415305195/ref=sr_1_1/104-7265340-8642336?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177720268&sr=1-1
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