lawbreaker vs malefactor

lawbreaker and malefactor both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
lawbreaker	Yes	No	No	No
malefactor	Yes	No	No	No

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

lawbreaker: someone who violates the law
malefactor: someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime

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

lawbreaker (noun)	malefactor (noun)
someone who violates the law	someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime