Locking up the parents of persistent young offenders has not been ruled out by the Scottish Executive.

But Minister for Education and Young People Cathy Jamieson said she was looking for alternative ways of making parents take more responsibility for the actions of their children.

She has promised no knee jerk reactions after the first meeting of the Cabinet sub-committee set up to "take stock" of youth crime.

The sub-committee was chaired by First Minister Jack McConnell, who said he wants to see an end to the vandalism, theft and nuisance which is blighting communities across Scotland.

Cathy Jamieson: "Alternative disposals"

Ministers have been reviewing existing policy on youth crime and looking at new ways of tackling it.

In England, a court jailed a woman for not tackling her children's truancy record.

Ms Jamieson said this was not her preffered method of dealing with the problem of young tearaways.

"I would hope that we could put in place other appropriate disposals that will tackle young people's behaviour," she said.

The issue of youth crime has risen to the top the political agenda in recent weeks.

Labour is looking at the possibility of fast-track youth courts.

Mr McConnell said the courts, similar in concept to the new drugs courts, could specialise in dealing with serious and persistent teenage offenders.

This idea has been dismissed as "populist" by Labour's coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats.

Lib Dem MSP Robert Brown said it was "tough" talk that did not deal with the causes of youth crime.

The Scottish National Party, who want to double the number of secure accommodation places for young offenders, is also proposing that the parents of offenders to pay compensation to victims.

SNP leader John Swinney said: "The concept of parental compensation orders is designed to establish a direct relationship between the young person who is causing this damage, the victim and also the parents of the people committing the crime."

He said the compensation would not be a fine but a remedy to pay for removing graffiti or repairing damage caused by young criminals.

He said: "We argued for this at the start of 2000, recognising the problems that were there."

Spiralling problems

"The Labour Party has been in office for the last five years in the United Kingdom, in Scotland, and in the Scottish Executive and we have these spiralling problems which they have not been able to get on top of.

"I think that says a lot about what they've been focused on and the way they've been going about their business."

Mr Swinney also said that finding out why youngsters offend should be the first priority.

The Tories have called for sin bins and grounding orders to be introduced.