Officials Pledge Campaign Against Youth Violence

CHICAGO, Oct. 7 -- When young people fight and kill other young people, much of the responsibility lies with adults, two members of President Obama's Cabinet said here Wednesday, pledging a "sustained national effort" to reduce youth violence.

"There's a lot of frustration and there's a lot of pain right now -- there should be. The status quo is not acceptable," Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said after meeting with students and parents from a neighborhood where a 16-year-old was beaten to death last month.

Holder called law enforcement approaches "fragmented" and said the administration is seeking fresh approaches that stretch beyond punishment and policing. He spoke of returning to "old-time" standards and values, as did Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

"Money alone will never solve this problem. It's much deeper than that. It's about values, it's about who we are as a society, it's about taking responsibility for our young people," Duncan, who ran Chicago's public school system for seven years, told reporters.

"To those who seek to lay blame on anyone else, I challenge you to ask first, what have you done? This is the time to look in the collective mirror. No one should get a pass today," Duncan added.

The two secretaries were dispatched to Chicago by President Obama after the broadcast of a cellphone video that captured the Sept. 24 killing of Derrion Albert during an after-school melee near Christian Fenger Academy High School.

A reporter asked why Obama did not come to Chicago himself.

"You've got Attorney General Holder. You've got me here," said Duncan. "The president's talked with both of us very, very directly about this. [I've] talked to the first lady, as well."

More than 40 children younger than 18 have been murdered in Chicago this year, police report. Since September 2008, scores of students enrolled in Chicago public schools have been shot.

But the problem extends beyond Chicago.

A study released Wednesday by the Justice Department said nearly half of children and adolescents surveyed across the country reported being assaulted at least once in the past year, with more than one in 10 being injured.

Holder called the numbers "astonishing" and "unacceptable."

Staff writer Kari Lydersen contributed to this report.