Faith, Justice, and Morality: A Study of Christianity & "Law and Order: SVU" Written by Ines Laimeche

Content Warning: This project contains an extensive discussion of the depictions of sexual and physical violence—including assault, harassment, rape, abuse, and murder.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 2. Methods 3. Part I: Abuse Within the Church 4. Part II: Youth Groups & Familial Abuse 5. Part III: Religious Cults 6. Part IV: Religious Violence Outside the Church 7. Discussion 8. Conclusion 9. Works Cited

Introduction

NBC's Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (SVU) is one of the longest-running scripted shows in the country. It is also widely regarded as one of the most influential shows when it comes to cultural discourse surrounding sexual violence. Much research has been done not just about its impact, but also at its representation of marginalized groups—women, people of color, and sex workers especially.

It was famed communication scholar George Gerbner (Gerbner & Gross, 1976) who created the theory of cultivation, of how the media we consume has a shaping effect on how we view society and the world. It could be argued, then, that the reverse is also true. As our culture shifts and changes, so do the people who create art in response to it. SVU is notable for being a remarkably accessible show, as it is hosted on one of the largest broadcast networks (& viewable via antenna or streaming). The show's broad audience only adds further to its potential impact. In deciding what to focus on for this project, I thought about the way that SVU represents the interactions of multiple social institutions and identities. This includes overlaps between policing/the wider criminal justice system, gender, sex work, race, education, entertainment, and more. Numerous studies and articles have been done analyzing Law and Order: SVU from an academic and critical perspective (Britto et al., 2007; Cuklanz & Moorti, 2006; Tsika, 2022; Veevers-Carter, 2019), in great detail.

I decided that my focus would be on the overlaps of religion and other institutions within the realm of American life and religion in television. As someone who is studying sociology, I am fascinated by the norms and rules of religious groups. Part of the reason I found the religious-focused episodes of SVU so fascinating (and chose to study them in the first place) was the classical sociological theorist Émile Durkheim's theories on religion. Durkheim (1912) said in The Elementary Forms of Religious Life that "a religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them" (Durkheim, 1912 p. 47). I applied this idea to a show I have always found both entertaining and textually fascinating—Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.

As stated previously, numerous studies have been done on the representation of people of color, women, and even the police themselves on SVU. However, little focus has been done on the representation of the religious on the show. While it is an admittedly narrow overlap, I would argue that it is worthy of a closer look. I decided to comb through SVU's 556 (and counting) episodes to analyze ten episodes specifically tied to Christian ideology. It is important to note there have been multiple episodes throughout the show's run focusing on non-Christian religions (such as Judaism, Islam, and others) that were not studied. It is not that these episodes are unimportant, but I chose to focus specifically on Christianity for this project because of the significant overlaps between Christian ideology and American social institutions.

I hoped to examine how victims of religious abuse were portrayed on SVU, and whether or not there was a shift over time and in the wake of movements like #MeToo and increasing attention on abuse within the Catholic Church. I also wanted to examine the views of the main characters themselves—the police and prosecutors—and how their faith is portrayed over the course of the show. I wish to avoid making sweeping generalizations about Christianity, or religion in general. The purpose of this project is not to claim that certain groups of people are prone to abuse more than others, or that certain beliefs (religious or otherwise) are lesser than. What I do argue, however, is that those who do wish to abuse others will use social institutions such as (but certainly not limited to) religion as an avenue to do so. This is often pointed out within the show itself:

"Most rapists hunt where they're trusted." - Olivia Benson in the season 17 episode "Patrimonial Burden"

In each section, I will focus on a different aspect of abuse portrayed in the episodes analyzed. First, I will focus on abuse committed within the structure of the church, such as by priests or pastors. The purpose of this section is to detail how the church as an institution can enable or cover up abuse. Next, I will focus on abuse committed on children specifically by family members or youth group leaders. I made this its own distinctive section, despite the fact that abuse of children does happen in the first section as well, to highlight differences in patterns of behaviors by the abusers, and how the institution of the family can overlap with that of religion. The third section focuses specifically on religious cults. These episodes are among some of the most violent of those studied, and they go to show how violence fueled by religion can be taken to an extreme. This concept is furthered in the fourth section, which focuses on a single episode of SVU about a serial killer who uses religious rhetoric as a justification for brutal violence. I finish with a discussion and thematic analysis of the episodes discussed and the show as a whole, focusing specifically on the show's depictions of faith, women, and policing.

Part I: Abuse Within the Church

Several of the episodes I chose to analyze focused on acts of rape committed within the structure of the Christian Church, such as by priests or pastors. While each episode was narratively slightly different, each of them showed a distinct pattern of methods used by these individuals to abuse their victims.

Season 14, Episode 10: Presumed Guilty

In the episode "Presumed Guilty," the detectives of SVU investigate a priest named Father Shea suspected of sexual abuse after he is found beaten by a man named Enrique Rodriguez, believing that Shea was the priest who molested his sister Angelica. It is revealed within the episode that a different priest, Monsignor Menendez, was the real culprit. This episode is particularly challenging because it deals with how institutions like the church and those within it can prioritize protecting the structure over people victimized by it. Enrique expresses his anger at the system frequently:

"He rapes little girls, and I get arrested?...Everyone knows and no one’s doing nothing?” - Enrique Rodriguez (20:17)

In a heated confrontation between Detective Nick Amaro and Father Shea, this dynamic is revealed again. Shea claims he knows who the real molester is but he is "bound by the seal of the confessional" (31:18) and thus will not reveal his identity. This reveals a complicated dynamic at play, and a debate that will hang heavily and constantly over episodes like these—duty to one's faith or duty to the law. Several cops within the series, including Amaro, are lifelong Catholics, and while this allows them to understand the point of view of the clergymen and other religious people they interact with, their role as police officers and duty to the law take precedent.

Season 23, Episode 21: Confess Your Sins to Be Free

This is examined once again later in the show in the Season 23 episode, "Confess Your Sins to Be Free." Personal and religious connections run even deeper in this episode. One of the victims, Audrey O'Neill, is a friend of Carisi's. A clergyman, Father Ryan Duffy, is suspected of committing multiple rapes (most recently against O'Neill) and is the childhood friend of Dominick Carisi Jr., former SVU detective and Assistant District Attorney. Carisi is one of the most openly devout Catholics on the show.

In the episode, a clergyman takes it upon himself to "punish" women in his church who confess (in the confessional booth) to adultery by raping them. This is also a recurring behavior within these episodes—the use of sexual violence as "punishment" for perceived sins. The confessional seal takes on an even more significant role in this episode than in "Presumed Guilty." Father Duffy is aware of the serial rapes, but refuses to name the perpetrator to SVU because of his vows of secrecy. In real-life Catholicism, the seal of confession is incredibly sacred, and U.S. law across all 50 states (including New York, where Law and Order: SVU takes place) considers communication to a clergyman (or any religious official) to be privileged and therefore inadmissible in a court of law. The exact verbiage of the New York law, if you're curious:

Confidential communication to clergy privileged. Unless the person confessing or confiding waives the privilege, a clergyman, or other minister of any religion or duly accredited Christian Science practitioner, shall not be allowed disclose a confession or confidence made to him in his professional character as spiritual advisor. (N.Y. CPLR 4505)

It is revealed that the actual rapist, Father John Regis, had confessed to Father Duffy about his actions knowing that Father Duffy would not report him to the police, out of fear of being excommunicated for breaking the confessional seal. The debate about the theological and legal implications of the confessional seal are long-running and incredibly varied. However, we view these situations, as all situations in SVU, through the eyes of the detectives and the prosecutors. And the seal of confessional, even to the most devout as Carisi, is seen as an obstacle to achieving justice.

Carisi deeply struggles in this episode—not just because he discovers his childhood friend is protecting a serial rapist, but also with his own faith. Carisi confronts Father Duffy in the church, telling him that by taking the fall for Father Regis "you’re letting him choke you with your own collar" (32:06). Carisi then says to Father Duffy:

“At what point do your vows become more important than your fellow human beings? What if he rapes a child? Huh? Or he murders somebody? Are you gonna absolve him then? Let him keep doing what he’s doing?” (32:32)

This moment is when Carisi's faith is at its shakiest. It is evident throughout the show that Carisi's morals both as a detective and later as a prosecutor are based in values learned from religion: to do what is just, and truthful, and right. To see religious beliefs used in this way—not just as a twisted justification for rape, but as a justification to protect the one committing the rapes—horrifies Carisi to his core.

Father Duffy defends himself by saying that he "vowed to uphold a higher law," to which Carisi responds that "the God I believe in would not sanction rape to protect canon law” (32:47). Here we see another example of how religious values and the values of the criminal justice system clash within these episodes, often within a single character—in this case, Carisi. At the end of the episode, Carisi visits Father Duffy again at the church. When Duffy tells Carisi he hopes he still has faith, Carisi responds: "I'm trying" (39:35).

Part II: Youth Groups and Familial Abuse

It is generally agreed amongst experts, including the United Nations (n.d.) that children are one of the most vulnerable populations within society. A number of the SVU episodes studied focus on the abuse of children and young people by religious leaders or family members. In this section we see an even more extreme usage of religious rhetoric to prevent victims of rape from speaking out, as well as an abuse of power. One interesting common thread between these episodes is surprisingly not within the victims of abuse themselves, but rather their families and how they interact with the police. In many instances, they responded with attempts by our protagonist detectives to police with an assurance to police themselves. Studies have shown that "conservative Christianity is associated with lack of trust and insular social networks" (Schwadel, 2022). This goes to show how insular communities can foster an environment where abuse can happen.

In this selection of episodes, the issue is first examined in the Season 17 episode "Patrimonial Burden," and again in 3 out of the 5 post-#MeToo episodes examined. In many of these episodes, the main conflict of the episode resides within the detectives trying to convince the family—often the mother—of the victim to not just support, but simply believe the victim. The fact that this struggle often takes nearly the entire episode to happen goes to show how the deeply ingrained values of these religious families clash with the deeply ingrained values of the detectives.

Season 17, Episode 7: Patrimonial Burden

Many of the examples of religious rhetoric being wielded by abusers to manipulate come from the victims themselves. In the episode "Patrimonial Burden," a 13-year-old girl named Lane Baker is discovered to be pregnant, and the SVU detectives try to determine who impregnated (and raped) her. When speaking to Olivia Benson, Lane tells her that the man who impregnated her "wouldn't hurt" her and "loves" her (14:59). There contains no doubt in the story that these words came directly from the mouth of the man who groomed her.

The detectives spend the episode ruling out suspects—first a cameraman who works for the family (the Bakers are the stars of a 19 Kids and Counting-esque fictional reality show), then Graham Baker, one of Lane's older brothers with a history of sexual misconduct of his own. It is then revealed that the true culprit is the family's pastor, Gregory Eldon. It is revealed within the episode that he also groomed and manipulated Lane's fifteen-year-old sister Summer, resulting in her having a child that her parents Pam and Frank Baker publicly passed off as their own to avoid scandal. It could be argued that, in their attempts to keep matters quiet, the Baker parents inadvertently maintained an environment where their children were susceptible to being both abused and abuser.

Lane's mother, Pam, is the primary obstacle to the detectives in their investigation of Lane's pregnancy. She even says to Olivia at the very beginning of the episode “Not to sound rude, but we don’t need your help. She’s our daughter. We’ll take care of her" (6:14). The Bakers are a near-perfect example of cultural insularity. When Pam finds out Lane is pregnant, she reacts by saying “If Lane had been hurt in any way, she would’ve told us" (6:28). They are hesitant throughout the episode to cooperate with the police, heavily encouraged by Pastor Eldon.

In another key example of isolation, by the time the detectives are prepared to arrest Pastor Eldon for his crimes against Lane, they find him in a courthouse with several of the Bakers, about to marry Lane. The judge officiating the ceremony is the judge previously found to have sealed Graham's sexual assault charges. This is a community protecting its own, even at the expense of female victims of sexual abuse by men. As a 2021 paper by Aaron Griffith discussing evangelicalism and policing puts it:

“Evangelical religion, with its anti-statist statist impulses that combine sentimentality, family values...limit consideration of other options for dealing with crime and personal trauma. Policing, as many have pointed out, is not the only way to deal with crime and community problems” (Griffith, 2021)

In initial defense, Pam tells the detectives that Pastor Eldon is "willing to provide for Lane and her baby" (36:18) and that this marriage will protect Lane, presumably from the sin of having a child out of wedlock. It is essential to note here that at this moment Pam does not know that Pastor Eldon is the father of Lane's baby, but still sees her 13-year-old daughter marrying a grown adult as the best option. This is indicative of wider practices within religious communities and attempts to control female sexuality. As Elisabet Le Roux put in an analysis that applies very well to this episode, "Parents may personally not want their child to get married, but when a religious leader explains that their or their child’s salvation is at risk, parents tend to agree to it” (2022). However, Pam has a change of heart in the end after discovering the true parentage of Lane's baby. In an almost comical depiction of blatant patriarchal views, Pastor Eldon tells Frank Baker to "get a hold" of his wife, and when Pam refuses, Eldon retorts “You do not say no to him. He is your husband, your patriarch" (39:00). It is more clear at this moment than in any other in the episode the kind of man Pastor Eldon is: a man who uses his role as a religious authority figure to isolate a young girl from her family, and to isolate the family from outside help.

Season 21, Episode 8: Garland's Baptism by Fire

This practice of isolationism, although not quite so severe, can be seen in another episode, this time from Season 21, titled "Garland's Baptism by Fire." Such a weighted title absolutely has a weighted meaning behind it: this episode focuses on a reverend, Delman Chase, a close personal friend of Christian Garland, who was then the Deputy Chief of the Special Victims Unit. He is accused of using church funds to pay off teenage girls in his congregation that he groomed and then had sex with (committing statutory rape). Although Garland considers Reverend Chase to be "like family" and initially does not believe the accusations against him, he nevertheless allows the investigation to proceed uninterrupted (which is framed as exceedingly moral on his part but is arguably the bare minimum). This episode also focuses on how religious rhetoric can be used as a public—and personal—defense against misdeeds. Reverend Chase has a very ornate and almost musical manner of speaking—almost as if he is giving a sermon even in casual conversation. He says to Garland: “These investigators are making salacious implications, concocting conspiracies. I worry folks will think there must be fire underneath that smoke. Whatever stories your people are hearing, I need to know...If I taught you anything, it’s how to protect your king" (11:05-11:36).

It is likely that Reverend Chase is aware of the power of his position and his language, and uses it to both abuse multiple young women in his church and also in attempts to persuade Garland to stop investigating him. Like Carisi, Garland is a devoutly religious man. However, Garland's frustrations are not with the system of religion, but solely with the religious man abusing the system. He is also largely frustrated with the Reverend's wife Laura, who is steadfast in her belief that the accusations against Reverend Chase are lies and tells Garland so, repeatedly. Most notably, she tries to threaten Garland into getting the charges against her husband dropped, saying that if he doesn't, "no one in our church will ever speak to you, or your wife, or your little daughter again" (20:35). This is a different form of social isolation than previously depicted—instead of an insular community being the conflict, the threat is social ostracization. Garland is repeatedly pressured by Reverend Chase and Laura to stop the investigation. Renée Lee, one of the victims of the Reverend, is pressured socially by her peers at the Catholic charter school (part of the church). She is told during the trial by her dorm mom (live-in supervisor) that "lying lips are an abomination to the Lord" (24:01) and the walls of her room are covered with graffiti done by her classmates. The dorm mom, Michelle, later tells the detectives she believes "Renée was lying about the Reverend. She knew that if she continued on that path, she’d be damning her soul to hell for all eternity" (24:17).

Near the end of the episode, Laura finally believes the girls who had been assaulted by her husband and supports them, saying to Olivia Benson, "I asked for their forgiveness. And I asked that they cooperate with you" (32:53). Meanwhile, Reverend Chase grows even more defensive. He says about Renée, "She used her lithe body, her suggestive smile to lure me to her. No different from Bathsheba bathing on the rooftop" (35:34). Reverend Chase refers to the story from the Book of Samuel, but twists it to favor him—he is King David, the righteous, and she is Bathsheba, the wily seductress. Reverend Chase, once again, uses his religious influence to try and hide his abusive practices.

Part III: Religious Cults

Of the episodes analyzed, there are two that focus on religious cults, one from 2004 and another from 2018. Despite the 14-year time difference, in both we perhaps see some the most extreme examples of how religion and religious rhetoric can be twisted and manipulated to benefit the perpetrators of violence.

Season 6, Episode 7: Charisma

The oldest episode in this selection focuses on a cult called "The Church of Wisdom and Sight." It was led by a man who called himself Abraham Ophion, but whose real name was Eugene Hoff. The episode opens with Olivia Benson meeting twelve-year-old Melanie in a hospital, who is heavily pregnant with Abraham's child. It is also revealed that Melanie has given birth before, presumably also by Abraham. When Olivia goes to Abraham's house to investigate, he escapes, leaving the detectives to discover the bodies of seven of the children in the cult brutally shot and killed (almost all of which were his children biologically).

It is discovered over the course of the episode that Abraham drew families away from a Christian parish to create his cult, where he then isolated the women and girls, several of whom he impregnated (including Melanie and her mother, Sarah). The detectives guess he even molested older children of his own. One former member of the group told the detectives that Abraham said you "couldn't be soldiers of God if you were slaves to the flesh" (16:58), and that they later caught him in their young daughter's room.

Abraham's language in his sermons is almost apocalyptic. An example:

"Are you willing to prove your obedience? Because the time will come, and you will be tested. When the soldiers of Satan come for you, when they demand your allegiance and threaten to murder you and your children and destroy all we have, will you make that sacrifice in the name of God?” (18:15)

What is interesting to note about this episode is that the detectives of SVU are more openly hostile regarding and to Abraham than they are to many of the other perpetrators in the episodes, referring to him throughout the episode as a "con man." It is then discovered that Abraham has a vested interest in his and Melanie's baby: Melanie has a multi-million dollar trust fund hers either when she turns 21 or when she has a baby (34:52). The detectives then deduce that although Abraham's cult has fractured following his mass killings, Abraham is keeping Melanie alive at least until she delivers their baby so he can gain access to her trust fund. It is debated throughout the episode whether Abraham actually does believe his own dogma—the detectives call him a con man at the beginning of the episode, but when in interrogation Benson says to him in disbelief, "you actually believe your own hype" (31:48). Whether or not he does, it is clear he is aware of its power. The adult women of his group are defiantly resistant to helping the police, with Sarah, Benson mother saying "I'm willing to make a sacrifice in the name of God the Father" (24:02). In a fiery exchange, Benson furiously confronts Sarah for protecting Abraham at the expense of the other children, which you can watch in the clip below.

What is interesting is the contrast between that scene and the scene where Benson confronts Abraham in his interrogation. Benson is much calmer with him, more conversational. She is sitting across from him, rather than backing him into a corner. While this could be just a change in interrogation tactics (flies vs. honey), it could indicate that while Benson obviously holds anger towards Abraham for his horrific behavior, she also holds just as much (if not more) anger towards the women who support him, similarly to Christian Garland in "Garland's Baptism by Fire."

Season 19, Episode 20: The Book of Esther

The second cult-focused episode studied focused on Detective Amanda Rollins and her fighting to get justice for Esther Labott, a girl found severely malnourished while running away from her conservative religious family. Rollins, a born-and-raised Christian herself, sees what's happening to Esther as a "form of control" (9:30). The patriarch of the family, William Labott, keeps Esther and her numerous siblings completely isolated from the world. He is similarly apocalyptic in his rhetoric, saying the following in a later confrontation with police:

“Where would she go? Into a world where greed and ignorance are laying waste to our Mother Earth? Where technology has corrupted our society with narcissism and alienation? Esther understands that the cataclysms foretold in the good book have come to pass. Famine. The rising seas. She needs to shelter here with her family for the end of days, period.” (30:08-30:35)

Over the course of the episode, Rollins partakes in some admittedly ethically dubious policing (going through the Labott's mail, sneaking into their backyard, breaking into their home) out of extreme concern for Esther, who she believes is "brainwashed" (18:04). In the episode, it is revealed that William and his wife abused all of their children by starving them and exacting harsh discipline on them. His wife told detectives that they "had to trust and abide in the Lord and raise our children so they could flourish in a cold and corrupt world.” (36:25). There is no doubt that the religious beliefs of this family were genuine, but it is also true that this episode portrayed how that faith was taken completely too far and ended up destroying the family in the process.

Part IV: Religious Violence Outside of the Church

Season 11, Episode 14: Savior

There is one episode I analyzed that is an outlier compared to the rest that is worth discussing: Season 11, Episode 14: "Savior." While the perpetrator of violence in this episode is a minister, the heinous acts he commits aren't within the confines of the church. This makes this episode unique in that it depicts how religious rhetoric can be wielded by people as a vehicle for them to commit violence they believe to be righteous.

In this episode, the SVU detectives are attempting to identify a suspect who is raping and murdering sex workers and leaving a prayer card behind, who is eventually revealed to be a minister named Billy Skags. In every interaction that Skags has with the detectives of SVU, the extent to which he uses religious rhetoric to attempt to justify his violent actions is apparent. This is a recurring pattern throughout all of the episodes of SVU analyzed within this project. Skags says numerous things throughout the episode in an attempt to "save" himself. When caught attempting to assault a young sex worker, he claims that he "was trying to save her soul" (18:05). He states that "“There is a better life waiting for girls like her in Heaven," (18:34) referring to the girl he attacked, and that he is "a servant of God" (23:35). There is something to be said here subtextually about the relationship between religion and violence: "Religion does not cause violence but is something the people turn to rectify the violent act” (Abrams, 2021).

It is also in this episode that we see one of SVU's most intimately spiritual moments. Detective Elliot Stabler, in an attempt to connect with Skags to get him to confess to his crimes, joins him in prayer. Earlier I discussed how ADA Carisi struggled with the conflict between his faith and his duty to the law. Detective Stabler is comparatively different here. He is openly devoutly Catholic throughout the show, and proudly so. However, Stabler considers it a far second to his deep desire for justice. For all intents and purposes, this moment of prayer between the two meant nothing to Stabler other than a way to break down Skags' will. Although he struggles deeply throughout the show with separating his role as a cop and his role as a father and husband, Stabler's religious beliefs, though significant, are almost an afterthought.

Discussion

A Battling of Faiths

Within the text of SVU, the tension between the police/prosecutors and the deeply devout people they interact with is palpable. Durkheim tells us that religion is a set of values "relative to sacred things" (1912). Both groups clearly value social mores like duty, justice, honesty, and serving your community—all of which are arguably universal values. However, the tension arises from each group believing that the others' application of their values is wrong. The police (understandably) express frustration with and contempt for many of the more devout individuals they interact with. The frustration the police feel comes from a question of why—why would a wife protect her husband, a church protect its deacon, a devout young woman protect the man who is abusing her? In turn, many of those devout people feel a sense that the criminal justice system is deriding their belief, the very framework for which their existence is based on. Many of them are wary of or outright hostile towards the police, believing them to be interfering in their community and their values. However, the show depicts how the tendency of these families to self-police and isolate from wider society is taken advantage of by abusers.

It is interesting to note that within the story of each victim, the police become a presence once they choose to seek guidance outside of their community. When Esther Labott or Evangeline Miller run away from their families, or when Melanie goes to the hospital, or when Lydia and Ann go to the police, or when Audrey chooses to confide in Carisi. This is not to say these characters are turning their back on their faith or on faith as a whole—in many cases, the faith in God of the victim only grows stronger by the end of their journey. What they choose to turn away from is how these social values are twisted by those who sought to abuse others. A tradition of violence followed silence and shame is then cultivated from it. And that, I believe, is what the show is attempting to highlight.

One of the biggest challenges that the police characters face is getting individuals from these religious communities to get "justice" for their loved ones. But, interestingly, it also happens within the characters themselves. The show uses characters like Dominick Carisi struggling to balance their faith in religion as a system and their duty to uphold the law. Interestingly, we also see the disgust in characters like Amanda Rollins and Christian Garland as they see the abuses committed by others using the rhetoric of the very religion they follow. We see the struggle that family members of victims go through when trying to hold fast to their religious beliefs while also caring for the well-being and safety of their family members. SVU depicts these different sets of framework to say that cannot always coexist together peacefully.

The Role of Women

Another interesting thing of note within this discussion is the role of women. An analysis of the female characters is vital, as the focus of the show as a whole is on what are overwhelmingly acts of gendered violence. There is a theory of a "triangle of violence:" there is the perpetrator, the victim, and the witness (Abrams, 2021). Within many of these episodes we see female characters occupying these roles, often more than one at once. A key example is the wives of cult leader Abraham Ophion in the episode "Charisma." As discussed previously, Benson holds great anger towards his wife and 12-year-old Melanie's mother, Sarah, for being loyal to Abraham. Sarah does bear responsibility for protecting him at the expense of her children, yes, but it is also true that she was victimized by Abraham—it is revealed that Abraham murdered her husband and told Sarah that he had left her, which opened her up to manipulations. It is fair to say, then, that Sarah is both victim of and witness to Abraham's abuses.

This is also seen in the episode "Garland's Baptism by Fire." The abusive reverend's wife, Laura Chase, plays a complex role in the events of the episode. Initially, she is her husband's fiercest defender, attempting to threaten Chief Garland into making the allegations against her husband "go away" and readily believing that Renee is simply a liar after her husband's money. However, by the end of the episode, the evidence is simply too overwhelming and Laura no longer supports her husband and encourages her husband's victims to speak out against him. She appears in shock by what she has enabled, knowingly and otherwise, asking "My God, how could I let that happen to those girls? Under my watch, under my roof?" (32:20). Thus, Laura stops becoming an enabler.

The experiences of women, of course, are not a monolith. In SVU and in real life, women play multiple social roles, often at the same time: victim, victimizer, enabler, inhibitor. The female police officers of the show, however, are a slightly different matter.

Within these 10 episodes, Olivia Benson and Amanda Rollins do not get much opportunity to be seen emotionally struggling or in conflict with their religious faith or their faith in the system they work or. This is not to say they are not emotionally involved with the cases themselves—police officers doing that is a hallmark of SVU. Rather, it is of note that the ways Benson and Rollins are connected to each case is very different as opposed to the male police officers.

They both frequently make deep maternal connections with victims. In "Charisma," Benson is extremely distraught over the discovery of the numerous murdered children, and displays a sense of extreme protectiveness over the young Melanie, to the point of screaming at Melanie's mother for not keeping her safe. She and another prominent female character of the show, Detective Amanda Rollins, frequently utilize the ability to forge maternal-like relationships with the (often female teenaged) victims they interact with.

While it is not malicious, it is intentional—both Benson and Rollins are acutely aware of the sense of trust the survivors they interact with feel in them, and do use that to gain information in order to detain suspects. At times, however, it can feel like the maternal, compassionate side of Benson and Rollins is the only factor that seems to drive them, while other (male) characters are allowed more moral depth. While Rollins was born and raised Catholic, this is often brought up as a way to make a connection with a victim, as is the case in "The Book of Esther." In contrast, the similarly religious Carisi experiences multiple deep and profound struggles to coincide his faith with his duty to uphold the law. Why is it that characters like Carisi and also Christian Garland (from "Garland's Baptism by Fire," most notably) are able to experience complex, layered relationships with religion, but Rollins' faith is much less multidimensional?

It is also worth noting that Benson is the longest-running lead female character on SVU. She is one of two female characters in the first season of the show, and is the only character overall to appear in every season of the show so far. Other lead female characters—attorneys, police officers, the medical examiner—almost seem on a revolving door in and out of the show, typically never lasting more than a few seasons at most. The second longest-running lead female character is Detective Amanda Rollins. She was introduced in Season 13 in 2011, and departed the show as a lead in Season 24 in 2022 (note: Rollins has since returned as a recurring character in the current season 26, although she no longer works for the Special Victims Unit). What does it say about a show that claims to share women's stories when, up until its most recent season, it wasn't able to keep more than one or two lead female characters in its cast? While one can correctly rebut that most real-life police forces are overwhelmingly made up of men (2022), I would argue that a show that frequently emphasizes the importance of supporting female survivors of sexual violence should do so with more than a very small handful of women at the helm on-screen.

Policing in "SVU" & in Real Life

I stated in the "Methods" section that I used October 2017, the month #MeToo was at its most culturally visible, as a benchmark to help my focus on what episodes I picked. I chose 5 episodes released before this time period and 5 episodes released after because a factor in my research was to determine what effect, if any, #MeToo, had on these episodes. I now conclude that SVU's cultural development is more complicated than that. Television takes a long time to produce and release, and to say that a complete ideological heel turn happened after #MeToo would be an over-exaggeration. There's roughly 18 full seasons of SVU released before Oct. 2017 and only 7 full seasons released after. One could argue that there was a much larger cultural shift that happens within just the "before" episodes, or even on a wider-scale from the beginning of the show to now. To its credit, Law and Order: SVU has made a discussion on sexual violence and rape culture in America more mainstream. And academic research has been done on SVU that argues the plotlines and characters in the show actively confront myths and stereotypes associated with rape culture and work to deconstruct them, even if that doesn't always reflect real-world policing's actions on sexual violence. (Veevers-Carter, 2019).

There is also something to be said about what these episodes of SVU—and the show as a whole—say about policing. It has been said by numerous scholars and critics that the Law and Order franchise acts as a form of "copaganda." In other words, mainstream shows about cops often act—in direct alliance with actual police institutes—to maintain the status quo in the real world about the role of police and policing in America. Writer Constance Grady said in a 2022 article about the topic that "Cop shows are where America thinks about how we see the police and how we would like to see them. These shows are shaped by our beliefs about the police, and they shape our beliefs in turn.”

The Law and Order franchise is perhaps the most poignant example of the "bad apple" theory—that whenever a police officer does a bad thing, they are just a bad apple from a solid tree. The working thesis of the show is that regardless of what actions the detectives of this show commit, it is ultimately for the greater good. If Olivia Benson tells a pregnant victim of sex trafficking that she's going to be arrested for prostitution if she does not testify in a trial (as she does in the Season 11 episode "Savior"), it is only for the good of the victim. If Amanda Rollins breaks into the home of a man she suspects of committing abuse (as she does in "The Book of Esther"), it's brushed over because he was abusing his family. If Elliot Stabler or Nick Amaro distort facts and threaten suspects during interrogations (as they often do), it's only because they want justice for the victims.

Over and over, this show portrays police officers as doing the "wrong" things for the "right" reasons. This is what a 2020 study by the nonprofit Color of Change found about fictional criminal justice professionals (police & prosecutor characters, referred to as CJPs):

"The majority of the series that did represent CJPs did so in a way that showed them committing wrongful actions in a way that normalized them—making these actions seem 'routine, harmless, necessary or even noble” in the pursuit of justice, rather than as “problematic, harmful, counterproductive or warranting judgement and accountability" (Turchiano, 2020)

The behavior of the characters on this show do not exist in a vacuum. By allowing us to create personal (if parasocial) relationships with the characters of the show, SVU has allowed viewers to associate the morals of Olivia Benson and Dominick Carisi with those of cops and attorneys in the real world—an association we know does not always match up. A study done in 2018 found that "Women with IPV [Intimate Partner Violence] and SV [Sexual Violence] histories had increased odds of experiencing most forms of police violence compared to women without IPV and SV histories” (Fedina et al., 2018).

I stated in the "Methods" section that I used October 2017, the month #MeToo was at its most culturally visible, as a benchmark to help my focus on what episodes I picked. I chose 5 episodes released before this time period and 5 episodes released after because a factor in my research was to determine what effect, if any, #MeToo, had on these episodes. I also took mental note of episodes that were released post-2020, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and resurgence in Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd by a police offer. In the end, I believe that SVU's cultural development is too complex to answer those questions. Television takes a long time to produce and release, and to say that a complete ideological heel turn happened after #MeToo and BLM would be an over-exaggeration of Gerbner's cultivation theory. There's roughly 18 full seasons of SVU released before Oct. 2017 and only 7 full seasons released after. One could argue that there was a much larger cultural shift that happens within just the "before" episodes, or even on a wider-scale from the beginning of the show to now. To its credit, Law and Order: SVU has made a discussion on sexual violence and rape culture in America more mainstream over the course of its run. And academic research has been done on SVU that argues the plotlines and characters in the show actively confront myths and stereotypes associated with rape culture and work to deconstruct them, even if that doesn't always reflect real-world policing's actions on sexual violence. (Veevers-Carter, 2019). Even if SVU says all the right things about rape culture, what good is it if it can't be applied to how we treat each other—and how we as a society are treated by the police?

Conclusion

The South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said that "religion in and of itself is morally neutral. Religion is like a knife. When you use a knife for cutting up bread to prepare sandwiches, a knife is good. If you use the same knife to stick into somebody's guts, a knife is bad. Religion in and of itself is not good or bad—it is what it makes you do" (Getz, 2010). I found that concept particularly relevant for this project. As stated in my introduction, I did not choose this subject to say that Christianity, or religion in general, is inherently abusive or violent. I went into this project with Durkheim's theories of religion in mind, curious about how these norms and systems would be portrayed to a wide audience—some of which is rapidly becoming more secular than ever, and some of which becoming even more religious. SVU is also infamous for having episodes that are "Ripped From the Headlines," with episodes being loosely inspired by real-life crimes. The episode "Patrimonial Burden" takes inspiration from the real-life Duggar family (Ledbetter, 2015). In the episode "The Book of Esther," Amanda Rollins mentions the real-life Turpin family, who are strikingly similar in behavior to the Labotts. It can then be very fairly argued that the writers and producers of SVU were choosing to make commentary of their own on patterns of behavior in religious America.

I chose to study Law and Order: Special Victims Unit because to me, it represents how television (and media as a whole) can be viewed both from a lens of entertainment and analysis. SVU is a show I have watched for a long time now, but recently I have begun to view it and other shows with a more critical perspective. I believe Gerbner's theory that what we watch on television can affect us. I learned from this project that the process is reciprocal—we can affect television. SVU takes the darkest aspects of the world as they happen and presents it to the nation in a slightly more contained manner, meant to both start and shape conversations.

Additionally, the patterns and behaviors associated with sexual violence that has been discussed is reproduced across several other institutions, such as education, entertainment, and even policing itself. The overall thesis of Law and Order: SVU is that sexual violence can happen anywhere. In order to get justice for the victims of sexual violence in the real world, we have to examine the patriarchal roots of our institutions and we have to examine whether or not abusers like the ones portrayed in SVU are defects of the systems or direct results of it.

This project was completed part of an independent study under the guidance of SDSU JMS Professor Nathian S. Rodriguez.

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