The SNP has said it will make parents take more responsibility for the actions of unruly children if they win next year's Holyrood elections.

The nationalists' justice spokeswoman, Roseanna Cunningham, pledged that her party would crack down on youth crime.

The SNP has proposed a twin-track policy.

It would "get tough" with serious offenders while trying to prevent youngsters starting a life of crime.

During a debate on youth crime at the party's Inverness conference she said the areas most under siege were poor communities already having to deal with poverty, poor housing and lack of opportunity.

Ms Cunningham said: "It cannot be right that old people are afraid to go out of their homes in the evening.

There is a hard core of serious, repeat offenders throughout Scotland who seem to believe they are untouchable

Roseanna Cunningham

"It cannot be right that big groups of youths can monopolise the streets, behave in an aggressive manner often fuelled by alcohol or worse.

"It cannot be right that communities go on being blighted by vandalism and if it is not right, then we must endeavour to deal with it".

There was strong criticism of the Labour-Liberal Democrat Scottish Executive.

Ms Cunningham said: "Month after month, year after year, this executive has sat on its collective hands.

"Working party follows action plan, follows consultation, follows advisory group - the list is endless. The rhetoric is there but what is missing is any real action."

Ms Cunningham: parents should take responsibility

She told delegates at the Eden Court Theatre that much of the worrying behaviour of groups of young people, however intimidating it might seem, did not cross the line into criminal behaviour.

There was also a group of young people for whom early intervention and alternatives to custody were the most useful and effective way forward.

But she concluded: "We also have to recognise that there is a hard core of serious, repeat offenders throughout Scotland, who seem to believe they are untouchable.

For them, the only answer is to get tough and to get tough sooner."