Putting it simply, evil is a combination of factors even though some of these factors have not yet been proved.

There are some families where a thief is found in every generation and this brings in the question; if this is genetically passed on from one person to another or if it is an acquired method of survival that has been passed down the family tree.

The environment has been known to bring out evil in a person and a very close example is that of a friend of mine who is the kindest that ever lived. She is currently working in an office and their boss has not paid their salaries for the last four months. On Friday the boss wanted to use the restroom and since it’s kept locked, he went to get the key from her and she told him that she could not find it and together they looked for it since he had to go really bad and they could not find it and he had to rush to the neighboring office to use their facilities. The evil part? She actually hid the key because she was angry at his lack of paying them and she went ahead and pretended to be looking for the key without any guilt on her part.

When children are young, their parents are the role models and they observe and imitate what they see and that is the standard that they measure everything against. The gauge of evil and how much they can get away with takes root as they push the boundaries that the society has deemed right.

It is also agreed that a normal mind can develop a disorder in cases of extreme trauma where the conscience of the individual is no longer functional. There are some disorders that can develop because of substances consumed by the mother when she was pregnant and the baby born may grow up with a mind that is not right.

If you want to know someone, sometimes the kind of friends that they spend a lot time with can show the kind of values that they have and in this extent, evil friends can influence their peers to be evil as well so this is where evil becomes acquired.

The black sheep in the family or the bad seed as is described in most families is a different theory altogether since the origin is not understood. Evil exists no matter which way you look at it and its here to stay as long as the human race is not extinct!