Women with self esteem/confidence may not settle for a bad boy (unless they find him physically attractive and/or rich).
Some people who appear to some to be uneducated 'bad boys' are actually clever with hearts of gold and some people who appear to be educated and 'respectable' are just good at learning what they need to do, by fair means or foul, to pass exams, without being particularly intellectual at all and are really insecure. However there are still a lot of people who look like and are bad boys.
I watched a comedy programme a couple of nights ago 'Last comic standing' in which one of the male comics said that every female has a male friend who they like 'but not in that way'. He basically said that this is like an applicant being interviewed for a job and being told that they meet all the qualities that they are looking for but they still aren't going to hire him- they are going to hire somebody who is less reliable and less intelligent instead. The interviewer then says to the unsuccessful applicant that they will call him up every so often to complain about how bad the person they have hired is.
Experience tells me that this observation is spot on.
The custom of calling them 'bad boys' is inhelpful for a start because people continue to use this terms for people who are long out of their teenage years, into their 30s, 40s and 50s. These people are not 'bad boys'- they are irresponsible, unintelligent, uncouth men.