violator vs felon

violator and felon both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
violator	Yes	No	No	No
felon	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, felon is a hypernym of violator; that is, felon is a word with a broader meaning than violator:

violator: someone who violates the law
felon: someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime

Other hypernyms of violator include criminal, crook, malefactor, outlaw.

violator (noun)	felon (noun)
someone who assaults others sexually	someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime
someone who violates the law	a purulent infection at the end of a finger or toe in the area surrounding the nail