Times coverage: Victims of gang violence

Even as violence in Los Angeles County has fallen to levels not seen in decades, the toll on those victimized remains high.

Photographer Barbara Davidson spent two years documenting how victims and their families endured the aftermath of violence. A three-part series featuring her photos and video, as well as stories by Kurt Streeter, began Wednesday.

Streeter writes of the people who shared their stories:

They spend years struggling against pain that is sometimes physical and almost always emotional. The struggle bends lives in different ways. But for those left behind -- maimed victims, husbands, mothers, best friends of the dead -- there is no forgetting. They are the survivors.

They spend years struggling against pain that is sometimes physical and almost always emotional. The struggle bends lives in different ways.

Some dip into long periods of depression, battling to keep their relationships, their jobs and their hope afloat. Some become activists. They join committees, stuff envelopes, speak at high schools and work to change laws. Some lack the means to leave their dangerous neighborhoods and are trapped in view of the crime scene. They say their prayers and cling to the notion that nothing bad will ever happen again.

Read more: Caught in the crossfire

Watch Video: The smoke clears, but pain endures

Photo: On March 2, 2010, 10-year-old Erica Miranda got home from school in Compton and, as usual, went outside to play basketball. "Shots fired," she said. Her mother raced to her side and found her daughter shot three times.

Credit: Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times