habitual criminal vs malefactor

habitual criminal and malefactor both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
habitual criminal	Yes	No	No	No
malefactor	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, malefactor is a hypernym of habitual criminal; that is, malefactor is a word with a broader meaning than habitual criminal:

habitual criminal: someone who is repeatedly arrested for criminal behavior (especially for the same criminal behavior)
malefactor: someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime

Other hypernyms of habitual criminal include criminal, crook, felon, outlaw.

habitual criminal (noun)	malefactor (noun)
someone who is repeatedly arrested for criminal behavior (especially for the same criminal behavior)	someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime