‘Hard-man’ reputation seen as route to status for men shut out of jobs and education, Cork study finds

Researchers found violence and substance use became ways for socially excluded men to establish masculinity, status and respect within their communities

According to those interviewed, the 'street code' for the area was the status of being a hard-man, with the key component being a capacity for violence. Stock picture

Being viewed as a “hard-man” capable of violence is a way for some men to achieve status and respect within their communities if they don’t have legitimate employment or education, a study of recovering addicts and offenders in Cork has found.

The research has been undertaken by James Windle and Orla Lynch from University College Cork's Department of Sociology and Criminology, and Graham Cambridge of the Churchfield Community Trust in Cork City.

It drew on contributions from 40 men from Cork who were in recovery from active addiction and were no longer offending between the ages of 21 and 49. 

Most had left school early with minimal qualifications. Some had never been employed while others had been employed on a sporadic basis. 

The majority were from the northside of the city, which the study pointed out is an area which “has long suffered among the highest level of economic deprivation and social exclusion in the country”.

According to those interviewed, the “street code” for the area was the status of being a “hard-man”, with the key component being a capacity for violence.

The researchers wrote: “Being denied opportunities to accumulate the status afforded by legitimate employment and education meant participants viewed being a hard-man as the only available means to achieve status and respect within their community.” 

One of the participants said in his interview for the research: “The only people that seemed to be respected and talked about the whole time were people that could handle themselves and the people that were involved in things, the madder the better.” 

Another said: “You were respected if you fought, you were not respected if you could debate. You were not respected because you were intelligent. 

"You were respected if you were not afraid to fight. You did not need to be a good fighter, once you were willing to go into a fight in the first place.” 

A third participant said: “To have power over people, to have people afraid of you, to have do anything for you, that was my idea as power.” 

The study said that while problematic substance use played a role in the development of “hard-man reputations”, it also led to a loss in physicality which in turn led to a reduced capacity for violence “as substance use progressed into active addiction”.

The lack of physicality then led the participants in the study to seek redemption through recovery from addiction and desisting from violence.

The study said that the participants “used heavy consumption of licit and illicit substances, alongside acts of violence, to build reputations as hard-men within their communities. 

"This behaviour was essential to participants’ performance of masculinity, however, their substance use eventually drifted into active addiction which reduced their physicality and capacity to carry out violence.” 

It added: “The tools for establishing and portraying masculinity, typified by the hard-man person, were ultimately the same behaviours leading to the loss of this identity.” 

One participant outlined: “My identity was becoming more of a drunken fool than anything else. That womaniser, tough man that could earn a living, was gone.”