rapist vs malefactor

rapist and malefactor both are nouns.

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

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

rapist: someone who forces another to have sexual intercourse
malefactor: someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime

Other hypernyms of rapist include aggressor, assailant, assaulter, attacker, criminal, crook, felon, outlaw.

rapist (noun)	malefactor (noun)
someone who forces another to have sexual intercourse	someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime