Romantic attraction to criminals is not a new craze. Films have used the ‘bad boy’ trope to describe love interests for generations. While these fictional crushes remain fairly harmless, some individuals are attracted to real criminal offenders, a phenomenon known as hybristophilia. A famous example of this is the Ted Bundy groupies, who sent love letters, nude photos, and marriage proposals to his prison cell. Some would even dress up as victims during his trial. 

Some researchers claim that the media reinforces hybristophilia by portraying criminals as misunderstood. In some cases, fan pages and discussion forums exacerbate this phenomenon by using the offender’s history of trauma to excuse their crimes. Hybristophilia has been explored through fan mail sent to offenders and groupie behaviour at trials. However, contemporary researchers have begun using TikTok to further understand this taboo subject.

A 2023 analysis of the hybristophilia content on TikTok found four common themes. The largest theme was sexually objectifying both real and fictional offenders by using provocative captions and overlaying the videos with sexually explicit lyrics. The second most common theme was minimizing the extent of the offender’s crimes by posting videos of the offender as a child or even editing their crime into a cartoon. Finally, many of the videos romanticized the criminal, portraying them as romantic, desirable, and heroic. However, some content highlighted people’s guilty feelings toward being attracted to serial offenders and how it negatively impacts their mental health.

An example of a hybristophilic trend on TikTok is videos sexualizing the Scream franchise’s Ghostface mask. In these clips, individuals dress up as the killer from the franchise and portray him as sexually desirable. However, the individual the character is based on is a notorious necrophiliac, rapist and serial murderer. This underscores one of the biggest problems with hybristophilia: it completely dismisses the victims and their families.

While hybristophilia usually stays within fantasy, there have been examples of hybristophiles helping offenders commit heinous crimes. This is known as aggressive hybristophilia. In 2014, Johanne Dennehy was convicted of three murders. Although her accomplices did not aid in the murders, they helped her bury bodies and evade police detection. The three male accomplices were deemed to be “under her thrall” and became infatuated with her because of the crimes she committed. On the other hand, passive hybristophilia is associated with fantasies of fixing the offender. This has become a popular trope in movies and books, such as Empathy by Ker Dukey or The Risk by S.T. Abby. These pieces of media usually feature a female protagonist who teaches the killer to love and is, in turn, protected by them.

The romanticization of criminals has also been featured in popular media, such as the television show You. This show centers on the fictional character Joe Goldberg, a manipulative serial killer known for his attractiveness and charm. Although he has killed 23 people and committed other crimes such as abduction, stalking and disposing of bodies, viewers continue to romanticize him and portray him as a hero with a tragic back story.

— Sophie Wagner, Contributing Writer

Featured Image: State Library and Archives of Florida; Public Domain

Body Image #1: Photo by Erik Mclean on Pexels; Creative Commons

Body Image #2: Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash; Creative Commons