Officer Nate Kendall aids a woman in trouble and becomes roped into solving a rape case. While Detectives Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson believe that Kendall is not right for the case due to his unstable personality, Executive ADA Sonya Paxton joins the team, bringing evidence of a common thread among three other rape cases. With Paxton's help, the team might expose a serial rapist.
Young woman's body is found stuffed inside a suitcase, and police believe that Mindy Keefe, the victim, was a train passenger on her way to Tampa when she was murdered. Detectives Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson turn to Keefe's financier boyfriend, Owen Cassidy's yacht to investigate. However, Cassidy claims he was on his boat during the time of the murder. After further searching, the detectives discover Keefe belonged to an online dating website. But when the CEO of the dating website, Vance Shepard, refuses to comment on the case, the detectives turn to ADA Sonya Paxton for help.
When Lily Milton is reported missing, her boyfriend, Parker Hubbard, points Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler in the direction of Callum Donovan, Lily's downstairs neighbor and convicted bank robber who spent nineteen years in solitary confinement. During the investigation into Donovan's alibi, Lily is found alive, adding a surprising twist to the case and exposing more of Donovan's dark past.
After a night of heavy drinking, Dalton Rindell wakes up to a bloody apartment, a terrible cut on his head and a dead woman in his bed. Unable to recall the night before, Rindell immediately calls the police. Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler suspect the crime is the result of a deadly love triangle; however Rindell does not recognize the victim. After questioning Rindell and the victim's family and friends, Benson and Stabler are provided with leads in several different directions. Unsure which lead to follow, the two detectives decide to return to the bar where the night began in order to piece together the gruesome truth.
After Eva Banks makes a shocking discovery about her son, Cory's behavior at school, she takes him to the doctor, only to find out that he has been the victim of sexual abuse. Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler come onto the scene and question the victim and his family. From the boy's frightened reaction when his stepfather, Thomas Banks, silences the investigation, it is clear to everyone in the room who the real perpetrator is. Detective Benson and Stabler are about to arrest the suspect when Thomas agrees to give up the leader of the largest pro child-adult relationship civil rights group in exchange for amnesty.
When a young couple is found murdered in the back of a padlocked truck, Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler investigate the scene and link the male victim to a dangerous Mexican drug cartel. Benson and Stabler follow a lead to an abandoned drug den where they are surprised to see FBI Special Agent Dean Porter, who is separately working on the case. Porter tries to take over the investigation, but suspicion arises and the two continue the hunt for the murderer. Following their intuition, Benson and Stabler come across shocking discoveries, which lead them to believe this case is much larger than a mere drug-related murder.
After a crime scene photo of a murdered teenage girl rapidly becomes an Internet phenomenon, the police initiate an investigation with the victim's father, Greg Dunne. When Greg points the detectives towards Martin Gold, his daughter's suspicious therapist, it turns out that Gold's alibi is airtight. While Fin and Munch are busy tracking down the girl's stolen credit card, Dr. Melinda Warner and Detective Elliot Stabler discover that one of Gold's other patients has broken into the morgue. The case takes an unexpected turn, revealing a sinister prescription for murder at the hands of unlikely suspects.
After risqu? photos of a fifteen-year-old rape victim are leaked onto the internet, Detectives Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson's case becomes much more complicated. As the detectives' case slowly morphs into an investigation by the State Bar, Stabler's son becomes entangled in a streak of compromising events at the hands of his best friend, a recovering drug addict. As Benson takes charge of the rape case, Stabler is forced to set his personal opinions aside and deal with the potentially life-threatening situation his son and his friend have so carelessly gotten themselves into.
While in the park, a family stumbles upon the sexually mutilated body of Clyde Vandyne, a member of a biker gang known for prostitution and contract killing. To everyone's surprise, incriminating DNA evidence points to Detective Benson as the prime suspect. Munch and Fin investigate the murder, while Stabler fights to prove his partner's innocence. The detectives must find the missing link to both Vandyne's murder and Benson's involvement. A
When two young girls are similarly murdered a little over a month apart, Detective Odafin Tutuola decides to investigate the gruesome crimes. After a third killing, Fin discovers that all three children were "anchor babies" of immigrant families, and reaches out to the Center of Immigrant Services. After sifting through the Center's hate mail, and witnessing a fight between immigration lawyer Randall Carver and Joe Thagard, a fanatical follower of a xenophobic talk show host, Fin begins to narrow in on the killer.
When seventeen year-old Andrea McWilliams is found strangled and beaten to death in an alley, her ex-boyfriend leads the cops to a website that McWilliams used to meet up with random men. Detective Olivia Benson decides to create a user account for the site and finds womanizer Peter Butler, the man who met up with McWilliams. The case is closed when a different suspect is proven guilty of her murder, and a new one opens when McWilliams rape kit tests positive for HIV. Not only is HIV spreading as a result of countless attacks, but now the detectives must also catch a rapist on the loose.
When a rich and powerful couple with political connections is found murdered in their bedroom, Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler decide to speak to the deceased couple's daughter, Anne, for more information. After hearing Anne's account of a nefarious man who has been following her, the detectives soon discover that Anne's supposed stalker is none other than Detective Ash Ramsey of the Special Frauds division. Convinced that Anne killed her parents for their money, Ramsey becomes suspicious of Anne's business manager and is led to believe that he helped her steal money from the foundation she runs. When blackmail and embezzlement come into play, the detectives find that their lives may be at risk over a girl with some serious parent issues.
Detectives Olivia Benson and Eliot Stabler find a woman bleeding from the neck and nearly dead. The woman dies before they reach the hospital, and soon the investigation leads them to the frontman of the death metal band Vampyre Sacrifyce. He bites girls, steals blood from the local blood bank and sings about violence to women all in the name of his strange, vampiric lifestyle. The singer claims he was nowhere near the scene of the crime, and soon a lesbian rights group led by Babs Duffy gets involved, claiming the victim's death was a result of police neglect. However, when more women from Babs's group are attacked, it becomes clear that the victim's case wasn't an isolated incident and that someone out there has a larger plan to bring the group down.
When a series of young prostitutes are found murdered with homemade prayer cards attached to their bodies, Detectives Olivia Benson and Eliot Stabler struggle to find the common thread. However, just when they think that they've found the murderer, Captain Donald Cragen informs the detectives that another victim named Gladys has turned up with a prayer card. This time she survived. As the case unfolds, Benson finds herself getting emotionally invested in the survivor until she is forced to make a decision that she isn't ready to face.
When security cameras record footage of a woman being abducted, it isn't long before Captain Donald Cragen and the SVU squad find the woman dead in the basement. Detective John Munch recalls a similar case from twenty years before, sending Detectives Olivia Benson and Eliot Stabler to Sing Sing to speak to the culprit, who begs them to reopen his case and prove his innocence. As strange similarities between the two cases begin to arise, Benson and Stabler face fierce opposition from Ingrid Block, the pit bull attorney for the main suspect who will do whatever it takes to prove her client's innocence. Ultimately, it falls on DA Jack McCoy to decide whether or not the ruthless lengths to which Block went to defend her client constituted a crime itself.
Soon after a young girl, Laine McAlister, is raped in her apartment building's stairwell, Detectives Olivia Benson and Eliot Stabler meet Laine in the hospital and find her extremely shaken with a large cut on her hand. After an unpleasant exchange with a man she claims is her boyfriend, the detectives become suspicious that she may have fabricated her rape to get attention. Their suspicions grow when she waits to reveal that there was an eyewitness. As the gravity of the situation intensifies, Benson and Stabler find themselves in a race to track down the witness and get a testimony before it is too late.
Detectives Olivia Benson and Eliot Stabler are called in to investigate when a disabled woman, Cara Benson, is beaten and raped. Though the victim's condition has rendered her unable to speak, the detectives soon deduce that someone close to her is responsible, with the lead suspects being her resentful sister and troubled nephew. As the investigation continues, Benson and Stabler strive to make Cara comfortable with coming forward to stand up for herself and illuminating some of the disturbing truths about the assisted living business.
Detective Olivia Benson and Detective Eliot Stabler are called to the scene of a crime where an investigative journalist has been found dead in her bed with an "X" carved into her cheek. Captain Donald Cragen recognizes the killer's tactics from a similar case thirty years earlier, when the "Bedtime Butcher" murdered five women in the Bronx. The trail leads the detectives to a patrol cop, a jealous ex-lover of the prime suspect, and even sends Benson on a dangerous undercover mission to uncover the truth.
Detectives Olivia Benson and Eliot Stabler are called to a crime scene where the body of a young man has been found in a hotel storage room. Initially, it is assumed that the young man was a wedding crasher, but security tapes indicate that he was with the bride's godfather. However, when the presumed victim turns up alive, Benson and Stabler must determine the true identity of the victim and find the murderer.
After a young woman is sexually assaulted and murdered, Detectives Olivia Benson and Eliot Stabler track down the woman's boyfriend - their first suspect - but learn that he is a devout vegan who wouldn't hurt a fly. They soon find that the victim had been deeply involved in the fight to expose questionable practices in the meat-packing industry, even going undercover at a large company to find out the truth. Benson goes undercover herself to retrace the woman's footsteps and to identify who the victim might have angered along the way.
When two sisters are killed in a fire, Detectives Olivia Benson and Eliot Stabler are confused about why they are called to investigate. They soon discover that Stabler's old partner, ADA Jo Marlowe , has been put on the case -- despite the absence of a sex crime -- because the two victims were so young, and that she has enlisted the duo to help. However, as the investigation continues, Benson and Stabler find that the case might be more suited to their department than anyone originally assumed, and Stabler's interrogation tactics threaten to get the detectives into trouble.
When a pregnant woman is raped, Detectives Olivia Benson and Eliot Stabler arrive at the hospital to find that she has fled. Even when someone is arrested for a similar offense, ADA Jo Marlowe says she doesn't have a case in court unless they find the victim and get a statement from her. Soon, Benson and Stabler connect the woman to an illegal adoption operation, forcing them to go undercover and expose the truth.
After a man flashes customers at an electronics store, it is discovered that someone who matches his description has recently raped three young girls. Captain Donald Cragen orchestrates a movement to catch the rapist, and a rookie cop makes an arrest. Detectives Olivia Benson and Eliot Stabler confirm that they've found their man, but after ADA Jo Marlowe expresses some doubts, it is soon discovered that the so-called rookie may have some secrets of his own.
When an 8-year-old boy is kidnapped off a city street, Detectives Olivia Benson and Eliot Stabler are called to investigate. They soon find that the boy is in his father's custody, and his mother has a history of overstepping her bounds. As the case comes to a head, members of the SVU team find themselves in a life-threatening standoff and learn shocking details about ADA Jo Marlowe's past.
