Transcending

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