Malicious Mischief
A Dictionary of Law · Henry Campbell Black · 1891
A Dictionary of Law
A term applied to the willful destruction of personal property, from actual ill will or resentment towards its owner or possessor.
3 Dev. & B. 130.
Malicious mischief or damage is a species of injury to private property, which the law considers as a public crime. This is such as is done, not animo furandi, or with an intent of gaining by another's loss, but either out of a spirit of wanton cruelty or wicked revenge. In this latter light it bears a near relation to the crime of arson, for, as that affects the habitation, so does this the property, of individuals; and therefore any damage arising from this mischievous disposition, though only a trespass at the common law, is now, by several statutes, made severely penal.
Jacob.