Wickedness or evil has always been something I’ve understood as being non existent when taking in the value philosophy of absurdism, Nietzsche and Sartre. There isn’t a definitive good and bad. There’s just perspective. One person’s evil may be another’s good. After some reflection, I think that there is evil.
One of the oldest forms of agreed evil: murder. Murder has always been seen to be evil or at least a question in which to test it. Sometimes, you could argue, murder is warranted. Take the philosophical tram test. One containing one person, the other 5 people on a tram line. Do you click the lever to save one person or five?
I think a necessary component of wickedness or evil is rational thought. An animal doesn’t kill or play with its prey with a calculation. It doesn’t with no understanding of its impact on the world. It operates completely in its present. Humans, in a unique way, are capable of understanding abstract ideas and can have rational thought. Evil exists within thought that is calculated and acted on with the intent or recklessness to cause distress.