A star was born this week in Stockton, California: Jeremy Meeks, a 30-year-old convicted felon whose hunky mugshot — featuring dreamy slate-blue eyes and chiseled cheekbones — has turned him into a viral heartthrob. “Definitely the sexiest mugshot I’ve ever seen!” gushes one of 16,000-plus comments on the photo, posted on
Facebook on Wednesday by the Stockton Police Department. But while no previous arrest photo has attracted this much attention in the two years since the page was set up, according to the department, it’s far from the first time women have gone gaga for a bad guy.
A spate of studies, including a
small one in 2012 by psychologist Kristina Durante called “Ovulation Leads Women to Perceive Sexy Cads as Good Dads,” have found hormones to blame for putting looks and edgy charisma over niceness and reliability.
Another in 2013
found that a majority of women, perhaps because of those old Stone Age values, most desired men possessing what’s called the “Dark Triad” personality traits of narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism — a seemingly repellant combo of duplicity, insincerity, self-importance, and callousness.
Meeks, arrested Wednesday on five weapons charges and one gang-related charge as part of a sweep responding to regional shootings and robberies, was deemed “one of the most violent criminals in the Stockton area” by a police department spokesperson, according to the
Associated Press. Though the nature of his previous convictions has not been divulged, his fans on Facebook — where his mugshot has garnered nearly 56,000 likes — don’t seem too concerned with the details.
“I'll bail him out. His sentence will be to live with me for the rest of his life....not to [sic] bad if you ask me,” noted one woman. Other choice comments: “Such a babe,” “He could’ve been a supermodel with those looks,” “OMG boy toy, LOL,” “That’s a good-lookin’ convict,” and “Felon-crush Friday?”
