"The longest-running live-action prime time television show of all time deals exclusively with topics that have historically been ignored as being a ubiquitous part of America’s culture: sexual assault, domestic violence, sexual harassment, and child abuse. Law & Order’s (Wolf, 1990–2010) sex-crimes-focused spin-off does not shy away from such topics but shines a light on them while keeping the victims of these crimes and the always-sympathetic Captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) at the forefront of every narrative. Hargitay was so inspired by the series that she became an activist, founding the Joyful Heart Foundation for survivors of sexual violence and working to end the backlog of rape kits throughout the US. She views SVU as “a longtime force for positive change” (Barcella),and many others who work or have worked on the series in the last two decades agree with her. Episodes do not simply dramatize sexual violence; they are “laden with real-life lessons about consent, domestic violence, and the psychological impacts of sexual assault,” which is why the creative team behind SVU“ see their show partly as a vehicle for education” (Minich, 5). Procedural detective dramas have historically been “the primary masculine television genre, with a predominantly male audience” (Cuklanz, 19); SVU’s audience, however, is “made up mostly of women” (Minich, 5) because it depicts a world in which the United States judicial system takes sexual violence seriously. Critics have argued that the way the show portrays how the justice system treats survivors is “the heart of the show’s appeal” (Minich, 5)."