The job of the NYPD's Special Victims Unit is to investigate especially heinous sex-related crimes. SVU also noses around the detectives' private lives, where professional detachment is the modus operandi. Knowing that Det. Olivia Benson was conceived during a rape and that her partner, Det. Elliot Stabler, is a fiercely protective dad enhances our understanding of how they react to sexual assault cases. Even the perpetrators are complex. Hot-button issues like pedophilia, and gives extra twists to kinkier cases, which uncover everything from Romanian sex slaves to a sadomasochistic stockbroker.