Transcending: Reflections of Crime Victims - Portraits and Interviews »

Are victims of crime destined to have the rest of their lives shaped by the crimes they ve experienced? ( What happened to the road map for living the rest of my life? asks a woman whose mother was murdered.)
Will victims of crime always be bystanders in the justice system? ( We re having a problem forgiving the judge and the system, says the father of a young man killed in prison.)
Is it possible for anyone to transcend such a comprehensively destructive, identity-altering occurrence? ( I thought, I m going to run until I m not angry anymore, expresses a woman who was assaulted.)


  Howard Zehr presents the portraits and the courageous stories of 39 victims of violent crime in Transcending: Reflections of Crime Victims. Many of these people were twice-wounded: once at the hands of an assailant; the second time by the courts, where there is no legal provision for a victim s participation.

My hope, says Zehr, is that this book might hand down a rope to others who have experienced such tragedies and traumas, and that it might allow all who read it to live on the healing edge.

Director of Victim Services, National Organization for Victim Assistance, Washington, D.C. - Cheryl Guidry Tyiska

This book is a graphic acknowledgment that crime can happen to anyone, anywhere, anytime, at any place. It is also an elegant reminder that none of us knows how we will react to our own victimization or that of other people, and that each of us has our own vision of what justice truly means.

About This Book Howard Zehr 
Part I. stories and reflections of crime victims 
      1.    All the rungs on a ladder are removed. Lynn Shiner
        2.    For so many years, nobody believed me. Janet Bakke 
       3.    I have to live with the fact that I made that decision. Donald Vaughn 
       4.    We were not only responsible for our own grief, but for the community s.                     Barbara Ayres 
    There s nothing like murder to make you really, really look at yourself.
         5.    What happened to the road map for living the rest of my life?                     Debra Franke 
       6.    You re getting all this support, and one day it s over.                     Pam & Robert Ayers   
    7.    Murder is like cancer, the C-word. It s taboo. Amy Mokricky 
       8.    When the trial was over, we had to deal with each other.                      Emma Jo and Herbert Snyder   
    9.    I needed to find my way. Louise Williams  
  It s like destroying the old structure and rebuilding.  
       10.    I needed to decide whether to live or not. Kim Muzyka  
      11.    People want to define me by my adversity and grief. Frank Silovsky 
       12.    You don t know how you re going to respond until you re in it.                     Sherri Brunsvold   
    13.    I was stuck on April 19, 1995. Bud Welch  
      14.    I fell into this deep dark hole with no steps. Susan Russell  
      15.    The jury found him not guilty. I was devastated. Ricardo Wiggs 
   The light of hope for me is that justice will eventually be done.   
      16.    He has become an obsession with me. Deborah Brucker  
      17.    Justice is knowing and acting on the truth, and I don t know the whole truth.                           Joseph Preston Baratta
    18.    Was it something I did that contributed to her death? Vincent Torres 
       19.    It affects you viscerally. You re on the floor with it; you re incapacitated.                      Keith Kemp   
    20.    I ve had some anger that one of the offenders walked. Leland Kent   
    21.    All of a sudden you realize you re not in control. Juan and Martha Cotera 
   We grabbed onto all sorts of things as we were falling. One of these was forgiveness.    
    22.    Rage that s hate with a lot of chili sauce poured on it. Charles Nipp  
      23.    I couldn t park my angers, my fears. James Kostelniuk 
      24.    We re having a problem forgiving the judge and the system.                     Conrad Moore 
    25.    We were falling into a dark abyss, frantic to find footholds.                     Wilma Derksen
Shaking hands with Charles . . . that s the hand that held the gun that murdered my son.  
       26.    Every time my life was getting back in order, he would appear on TV.                     Paula Kurland 
    27.    It s like a twister coming through your house. Joanne Vogt 
      28.    I couldn t seem to feel good about myself. Diane Magnuson 
       29.    You re always kind of looking over your shoulder. Sandy Houtz 
    30.    I would wake up every morning thinking, I hope he dies today.                     Thomas Ann Hines  
    31.    It was either I kill myself, or I feel something. Bion Dolman 
  It s like a jigsaw puzzle where there s more than one way to put the pieces together.
        32.    I thought, I m going to run until I m not angry anymore. Penny Beerntsen 
      33.    The real Sandy was full of shame and hate and fear of rejection.                      Sandra Murphy 
    34.    My life is different in so many ways. Jacqueline M. Millar  
    35.    I could see my hands going around his throat, killing him. John Sage 
      36.    I was angry and came in contact with many angry people.                     Patricia Roberts-Gates  
    37.    You have all these little numbers, but none of them work. Ellen Halbert 
      38.    It was my fault and I m no good. I ve been tainted. Gayle Macnab   
    39.    What are you trying to tell me? What am I missing? Elizabeth Jackson