Gerry Adams stresses that "antisocial behaviour" has emerged as the only election issue on the doorsteps of West Belfast during the campaign for the Westminster and local elections.
"It is the only thing that is going to cost Sinn Fein votes because people feel that we are not doing enough."
The Sinn Fein president says he does not believe the attacks on local young men are aimed at strengthening the control of paramilitaries in their communities.
"They are the community responding in exasperation to the fact that there are elements who disregard any sort of acceptable norm and who simply prey upon other members of the community. Some of them it only happens in a phase in their lives, some of it is more ingrained," he said.
Antisocial behaviour demoralised the community but "punishment" attacks were not the answer, said Mr Adams.
"Any sort of physical punishment of those involved in criminal or antisocial activity does not work. If it worked the problem would be solved."
He said it was important to note Sinn Fein was the only party trying to tackle the problem with community based alternatives.
Mr Adams questioned the reliability of RUC figures and claimed it was in their interest to "totally exaggerate" the level of attacks.
"If there is a fight on the north or south side of Dublin on a Friday night outside a pub it's a brawl outside a pub, if it happens in north Belfast or west Belfast it becomes a punishment beating. So we just need to be careful about that."
He said the problem would not be eased until the interlocking social, economic and policing issues were tackled.
He said "there is a lack of social amenities, a lack of economic infrastructure and there is no police. Imagine Dublin for 30 years without police," he added.
Mr Billy Hutchinson of the Progressive Unionist Party, the political wing of the Ulster Volunteer Force, said he did not dispute the rise in the number of "punishment" attacks this year. The PUP position is that antisocial behaviour should be dealt with by the police.
"We need to make sure that people in society understand that this isn't about revenge, it is about justice. The only way to get justice is through a proper justice system and that's what we want people to do," said Mr Hutchinson.
He said the statistics needed to be analysed to identify the underlying trends. "We need to find out how many people were punished for breaking the rules of their own paramilitary organisation and how many are carrying out antisocial behaviour."
He said young people should not be brutalised by their own community. "Society will not change here for quite some time unless we actually get this right and start to recognise that there are people who are suffering."
Since the cease-fires, the paramilitary groupings had more time to focus on community problems.
"If you are a paramilitary leader and you say you are there to protect the people and some woman comes up and says she has been raped, and someone else says that their house has been burgled, they are going to say, `We'll deal with them.'
"To add to that the police know they can't deal with it - because of human rights and all the rest the police can't deal with it. So the best way to get it dealt with is the paramilitaries," added Mr Hutchinson.