The dark side of creativity

Malevolent creativity has been established as a distinct area of interest in the wider field of creativity research. The construct builds on earlier concepts of negative creativity that sought to acknowledge the possibility of harmful outcomes in the production of novelty. With a particular focus on the intentional production of harmful, novel outputs, malevolent creativity has particular relevance to fields such as criminal justice, policing and counter-terrorism. There is a growing theoretical foundation for malevolent creativity, and an expanding body of empirical work that continues to develop an understanding of the relevant variables and the relationships between them. Most recently, empirical work is beginning to shift towards cause-and-effect, and practical work is focusing more and more on the application of the concept to practical policing and security applications.