Every season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best seasons of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit!

Detectives Stabler and Benson investigate the murder and dismemberment of a taxi driver; the team discovers that he may have been a vicious Serbian war criminal living in the United States under a false identity.

Payback

Benson and Stabler run into multiple dead ends while investigating the case of a woman who plummeted six stories to her death clad only in a slip.

A Single Life

When a teen model is murdered and another is left for dead at a hospital emergency room, the team uncovers an insidious drug and sex conspiracy in the world of high fashion. Benson and Stabler enter into a modeling underworld of thoughtless parents, drug-dealing doctors and a trendy agency executive.

...Or Just Look Like One

When a young African-American woman is found dead, she is initially believed to be a prostitute and the latest in a long line of victims, but when looking into her home life Benson and Stabler realize that she does not fit the pattern, and may not be connected to the other deaths after all, but the other deaths have a connection no one anticipated.

Hysteria

When a world-traveling author is found dead in a room he rented from an alcoholic woman and her precocious 14-year-old daughter, the detectives are shocked to discover who the murderer is.

Wanderlust

A female student at an upper-class university is raped and murdered, and two of the college’s basketball stars are suspected. However, the college blocks their investigation at every turn because they are not willing to risk the negative publicity that the investigation could bring to the school and the upcoming championship.

Sophomore Jinx

When a young boy is found raped and murdered in a field, suspicion leads detectives to a recently paroled child molester who lives in the neighborhood.. Although they both hate what the man has done in the past, it is soon obvious to the detectives that the teenagers who initially steered them in the man's direction are hiding secrets of their own.

Uncivilized

When an assistant district attorney is found raped and murdered in Central Park, the Special Victims Unit learn that she’d been stalked by a real estate agent whom she’d convicted of date rape. Benson lets her emotions get the best of her as she takes it upon herself to bring the suspected rapist to justice. Stabler tries to get the man's business partner to help him, but Benson may be the one who ends up needing help.

Stalked

An investment analyst is found hanged in her bedroom, and the Special Victims Unit explores her sordid sexual past to uncover her murderer’s identity. The team uncovers the world of bondage and sado-masochism where they first investigate the woman's colleagues but are soon on the trail of a host of individuals involved in the world of whips and chains.

Stocks & Bondage

When a woman is raped, she turns to the Special Victims Unit for help, but lack of evidence prevents them from apprehending the criminal. When the detectives revisit the case a few months later, they find the woman even less willing to talk about what happened, as she claims she has moved on. Things turn sticky when Benson and Cassidy spend the night together.

Closure

A moral coalition leader’s gay son is found murdered on the roof of his apartment building. Initially, Benson and Stabler investigate his father, a Conservative well-known for his homophobic viewpoints, but once they start looking into the young man's living arrangements they realize the person they're looking for may be closer than they think. Munch tries to help Benson find the man who raped her mother, and could potentially be her father.

Bad Blood

When a multi-millionaire is found strangled in his home, Benson and Stabler turn their suspicion to his long list of lovers, which includes both men and women. Detectives discover he was involved with a group of beautiful Russian women that came to the U.S. to take advantage of wealthy Americans.

Russian Love Poem

A judge who fought for the rights of abused women is found shot in his car under sordid circumstances, and the detectives uncover a case of corruption that leads to the state parole board. The team soon turns their eye to a battered wife with a secret.

Disrobed

At the request of a victim, the police commissioner comes to Cragen with a special request -- close the five-year-old case of a serial rapist before the statute of limitations expires. The detectives finally get a lead but the investigation is hindered by one of the victims.

Limitations

After a salesman is murdered, the detectives turn their attention to the youngest daughter of a well-known family with some deep connections. But as they join forces with the officers from the two-seven, they realize that their case is connected with a long-unsolved case that Briscoe once handled years ago with his former partner Mike Logan.

The crossover continues in Law & Order S10E14 Entitled (II).

Entitled (I)

An elderly woman is found tied up and sexually assaulted in her apartment, and suspicion is initially on the young men that had broken into her home and robbed her, but once the detectives are surprised to learn that the rape was committed after the robbery – by someone else.

The Third Guy

The pregnant daughter-in-law of a Christian College president is murdered in her hotel room, and the detectives discover that the man had been involved in some very unholy activities.

Misleader

When a teenage girl comes into the squad room to tell the detectives that she was raped by a man she met on the Internet, the investigation leads the Special Victims Unit to a network of pedophiles and child pornographers.

Chat Room

After seven young women in a six month time span are raped by a flash and dash assailant on the city subways, the brass calls in a psychiatrist to help the team get into the head of the perp. When he is caught, he possesses the driver's license of a new victim who could put him away.

Contact

A female television news reporter decides to go public with her story when she attacked and raped by two men, but the decision proves to be fatal.

Remorse

After a pharmacy turns over some disturbing photos of a young boy, a beloved neighborhood piano teacher is suspected of being a sexual predator who takes advantage of his innocent young students.

Nocturne

A Romanian immigrant is being held as a psychological prisoner by her abusive employer and his wife, who is also traumatized by years of abuse and is willing to commit murder to protect her husband. A forensic psychologist analyzes the team, and presents disturbing findings to Cragen, suggesting that one of the detectives be removed from the team.

Slaves

Stabler's daughter bears witness to a horrific crime scene: a rocket scientist found dead with his crotch on fire. The scientist had strong ties to government security and detectives must determine if that had something to do with his demise. The internal investigation into the psyches of the SVU detectives yields interesting results.

Wrong Is Right

The vicious sexual assault and brutal beating of an Afghan diplomat's daughter uncovers clues that may suggest Taliban traditions justify 'honor killings' when the child defies the wishes of their parents or their culture; the trail leads close to home.

Honor

Stabler and Benson investigate a sexual assault very similar to one they worked six months ago whose victim follows her alleged attacked and reports his activities to the police.

Closure (2)

An abused 7-year-old girl lays comatose as the detectives investigate members of her dysfunctional family to determine the source of the abuse, in a case that hits close to home for Munch.

Legacy

The tragic shooting death of a young girl leads investigators to a little boy, and they soon realize that the gun used has been used in another crime scene and a drug ring using young kids as pawns.

Baby Killer

The question of patients' rights surfaces when a schizophrenic man refusing to take his medication is suspected in the rape and stabbing death of an aspiring psychologist, whose body is found in a convenience store.

Noncompliance

It’s a classic case of “he said, she said” when a cop’s wife charges him with rape. The truth behind the alleged rape comes to light when a history of domestic abuse is uncovered.

Asunder

The case of a seventeen-year-old rape victim during a gala for the opening of a luxury hotel takes a strange turn when her immediate family tries to keep the scandal quiet. Detectives soon discover that the girl isn't the innocent that she pretends to be. Benson struggles to deal with her mother's death and she learns about her past.

Taken

The investigation of a young gymnast's murder involves her strict trainer, a wealthy benefactor and a competitor. Detectives must look into her pressured lifestyle to find out who did it.

Pixies

A college co-ed is found raped and dazed after a frat party, but can't remember anything that happened. The detectives then find that she had a date rape drug in her system, leaving them with many suspects and accomplices, tho the victim is reluctant to press charges.

Consent

Parental neglect may have led to the tragic death of the son of two famous singers, leading them to fear for his sister. Benson develops a strong attachment to the girl who has a history of serious injuries.

Abuse

An exceptional teacher, who helped inner city kids get into college, led a dangerous double life as a sex addict. When she is murdered, there is a long list of suspects but the case hits a snag after the woman's illicit sexual history is exposed.

Secrets

A former police officer, now a community activist, is a suspect in the murders of known sex offenders, all of whom share a certain characteristic that scars their victims for life. The detectives find it's difficult to protect potential victims when they used to be perps as they investigate the murders of two convicted rapists.

Victims

The mysterious rape of a veteran police officer, who trained Benson, is first linked to her ex-husband's gambling debts, and then to her fellow officers. It turns into a nightmare investigation as the IAB tries to thwart the SVU squad's efforts.

Paranoia

The detectives become a little edgy after working around the clock to find an abducted girl when clues point to a serial murderer and rapist who kills his victims on the third day. After trapping the killer, they are prepared to give him the death penalty until they find out that one of his victims was never found and he offers her location as a plea bargain.

Countdown

The search for an out-of-state police officer's runaway daughter leads the detectives through an underground rave culture that caters to wayward teens. They use an Internet journalist to track her and their search is seen through the eyes of the squad room personnel as told in their interviews with the Internal Affairs division.

Runaway

Male escorts are assaulted and one is murdered, and the police have a tough time finding the bizarre couple whose sexual fantasy has turned violent. The investigation uncovers a dangerous male escort service where the boss may have reasons for sending her staff on potentially deadly dates.

Folly

The details of a kidnapping are similar to a series of rapes and murders that may link the crime to a serial killer.

Manhunt

The remains of a Romanian woman are found three years after her death, buried in an apartment courtyard with a collar and leash. The detectives have a tough time finding the killer until a composite photo leads them to the victim's identical twin sister.

Parasites

Observed by an FBI psychiatrist, the detectives uncover a horrifying motive for the slaying of a software company employee by a fired colleague when they learn of the suspect's bizarre relationship with his overbearing mother and a strange sexual fetish called piquerism.

Pique

A "Jack the Ripper" type murderer, who justifies his crimes with paranoid religious motivation set on by a rapidly deteriorating medical condition, is on the loose. After a citywide manhunt, Detectives Benson and Stabler are tasked with finding the killer.

Scourge

An 18-year-old girl is aided by her therapist in recalling repressed memories of childhood molestation by her father and reports the incest to Benson and Stabler in hopes of sparing her younger sisters the same fate. She brings charges of rape against her father who winds up murdered when those charges are dismissed.

Repression

The detectives investigate three murders that seemingly have no connection to each other, but each murder has ties to Benson's previous cases. As they join with the FBI to investigate, the detectives worry that Benson is the intended target.

Wrath

The kidnapping of an infant at a grocery store leads to an illegal adoption ring and the long lost closure of a case from 12 years prior of a murdered mother and missing baby which involved Capt. Cragen and his partner, the late Max Greevey.

Stolen

When an HIV-positive male, with a record of assaulting underage girls, is discovered in a sexual clincher with a young woman on a rooftop, the detectives are determined to put him back inside. After a series of rapes and murders of young African-American women cannot be traced to him though, they begin to wonder if they've been looking at the wrong suspect.

Rooftop

When arriving party guests find a prominent doctor beaten to death and his wife raped, the detectives have a parade of suspects and the realization that the wife was the intended victim.

Tangled

A string of murders leads detectives to question an initial suspect, the Soho Strangler, but they realize he might have been the wrong person all along.

Redemption

A man, who is shot and raped outside a gay bar, initially doesn't want to cooperate to find his shooter. When he finally does, the investigation leads to his family and turns his life upside down.

Sacrifice

A series of brutal rapes and attacks on Asian women lead the police to a suspect who was himself a product of rape - his father being a rapist who was convicted. The question is brought to court of whether his genetic make-up was responsible for the crimes.

Inheritance

The battered body of a five-year-old girl in foster care is discovered and suspicion soon turns to members of the girl's foster family as well as to the girl's biological mother; who is the real guilty party and who is only a red herring?

Care

What appears as a bizarre accidental death leads to a case involving a male stripper who claims that the deceased was one of three powerful women who raped him at a bachelorette party.

Ridicule

The pregnant wife of a psychiatrist is found in a parking garage, unconscious and bleeding from a gaping abdominal wound with her fetus missing. The investigation leads to infedility and uncertainty as to the paternity, adding fuel to the fire of an already agitated Stabler.

Monogamy

A 6-year-old boy wounded in a shooting is brought to the ER but abandoned by his brother, who reported it, and their mother, who fears for her own life. The case leads the detectives to a woman who is on the run from an abusive drug-dealer boyfriend.

Protection

Two people are found murdered in the park, including an animal rights activist who has been raped and then decapitated. Benson and Stabler must determine which of their two main suspects -- a sociopathic teenager and a recently paroled rapist -- is responsible for the murder.

Prodigy

A woman is found raped and killed by her car. Then, a similar rape is committed and the victim says that a police officer raped her after pulling her over for a supposed driving violation. This leads police to look at one of their own, until they realize the suspect is not who they think he is.

Counterfeit

Detective Stabler and Dr. Huang question a convicted serial killer on death row, hours before his execution, with the hope of solving an old murder case for the sake of the victim's parents. The investigation goes haywire with mixed results.

Execution

Stabler's wife tells him that her friend, a high school nurse, treated a young girl for rape. Despite being advised not to find out further details, Stabler, with help from Benson, crack open the case to disturbing details.

Surveillance

When A.D.A. Cabot is faced with a reluctant teenage witness in a child molestation case, she goes above and beyond the normal scope of duty in her search for evidence to convict the serial abuser. But her passion supercedes her compliance with the law, jeopardizing not only her case, but the careers of all involved.

Guilt

A rebellious 16-year-old teenager is raped and murdered; the case becomes complex when they learn that her stepfather is a judge with whom she has had major problems.

Justice

Investigating the rape of the wife of a restaurateur during a robbery, leads the detectives to a similar assault, and to a locksmith.

Greed

When a heroin junkie is found raped, Tutuola takes an interest in her, but he's not the only one. The case turns into a bizarre murder investigation when the finger of a small child is found in the victim's purse opening a can of worms that spans back thirteen years.

Denial

A mentally challenged girl with Down's Syndrome is pregnant, and the question is, was she raped or did she consent and is she competent enough to keep her child?

Competence

A murder in a church of a young cross-dresser leads Benson and Stabler to an alleged cover-up involving sexual child abuse by a priest.

Silence

The detectives are on the trail of a recently paroled rapist responsible for the murder of a prostitute during a raid at a men's club and are called to the scene where he was shot in self defense by his own gun.  However, the murder weapon was also used in another crime while he was still in prison, leading the detectives to investigate the victim through a trail of previously unsolved cases, a spending spree and another victim. They uncover a more serious criminal in the process.

Chameleon

A family portrait painted by a kindergartner leads the detectives to investigate her mother for child sexual abuse of her teenage stepson.  When the boy's father is found murdered, the focus of the investigation shifts to the boy -- and his stepmother goes to great lengths to protect him and prevent the detectives from learning the truth.

Deception

When an elderly woman with Alzheimer's breaks into an apartment, the detectives discover she had been abused, triggering memories of similar crimes from her childhood. They discover that she had been released from a nursing home to the custody of her financially scheming son who becomes the prime suspect. However, they go back to the nursing home to find a pair of suspects; the real crime is what's being done to the elderly.

Vulnerable

A public health doctor, the wife of a retired attorney, who tracked HIV cases is found murdered and raped in Central Park. Her work involved contacting sexual partners of HIV patients which gives the detectives a long list of suspects and the detectives try to link threatening phone calls to the crime. The discovery of a second body in Central Park with the same signature shifts the focus to a possible serial killer.

Lust

A high-powered executive is raped, but the situation is complicated by her involvement with the Feds and the Russian mob - as well as a father-son duo who are in the federal witness protection program and an agent who appears bound and determined to protect them, regardless of consequence.

Disappearing Acts

A battered young boy suffocates while hiding in the luggage compartment of an airport shuttle bus and it leads the detectives to his guardian and into the investigation of a perverted child molestation ring.

Angels

Detectives try and solve the gruesome murder of a sexually molested five-year-old girl whose killer, a serial pedophile, has an obsession with dolls. They race to save the life of his latest victim.

Dolls

The Detectives investigate the rape of a woman who's been in a coma for a year, and after eliminating a huge pool of suspects, they make a startling discovery.

Waste

A cancer patient, who was growing marijuana in her apartment and selling it, is found raped and murdered, sending the detectives on a hunt for two middle school students, each blaming the other.

Juvenile

A 14-year-old girl tries to commit suicide by jumping in front of a train after she is raped. She falsely accuses an ex-boyfriend but when the search turns to her dysfunctional family, surprise discoveries are made and SVU discovers that the family is even worse off than they thought.

Resilience

A six-year-old girl is critically injured in an apparent robbery-gone-bad and later dies. The investigation gets complicated when it is discovered that the murders were designed to silence the young girl, who was sexually abused.

Damaged

An infant ingests pure cocaine disguised in baby formula, uncovering a complicated narcotics ring with unlikely participants and the entire squad goes undercover to flush them out.

Risk

In their investigation of a prisoner's death, Benson and Tutuola learn that he was sexually assaulted before being incarcerated and since it happened while in custody, the police are suspected.

Rotten

When the body of a 1-month-old baby girl is found stuffed inside a cooler, the detectives are horrified. But they soon learn that the baby had a genetic disorder known as Tay-Sachs disease, and it may have been a mercy killing.

Mercy

The brutal rape, and subsequent death, of a female motorist turns out to be an undercover FBI informant acting as a cyber vigilante for catching online pedophiles to capture the predator trafficking internet porn. The detectives find the victim's husband murdered and follow the trail of evidence for the latest victim she had been tracking, which ​turns into an international case of teenage prostitution, with ties to the Czech Republic.

Pandora

A Tibetan woman who was tortured in her home country is found murdered, with her foot missing, and after an exhaustive search of potential suspects, the killer is a victim of torture himself.

Tortured

A young female film student dressed in a maid's uniform has apparently committed suicide but it's very suspicious. The detectives learn that she just broke up with her very rich and powerful boyfriend.

Privilege

After a young boy witnesses the brutal sexual assault and murder of his stepmother, he is too terrified to tell the detectives who attacked her.

Desperate

The body of a nine-year-old beauty pageant contestant is found raped and murdered on a bus, but the case goes beyond the killer when it leads detectives to a virtual-pornography website.

Appearances

A quadruple homicide with sexual overtones is just the start of an intense rampage of a serial killer that brings a homicide detective into the mix.  As the entire squad races against time to prevent further victims, the evidence uncovers a horrible situation of incest and abuse.

Dominance

A female party-goer and rape victim claims self-defense after killing her attacker. Events take an unusual turn when they find out that the victim is a pre-operative transgender.

Fallacy

A man accused of raping several neighborhood women denies everything and represents himself in court.

Futility

A dead girl is found outside a bar. The death, however, is ruled a suicide, because the victim's boyfriend continually raped her. The victim's father vows revenge against his daughter's rapist.

Grief

A murdered 14-year-old girl leads the detectives to a prominent physician who specializes in reproduction therapy and exposes a dangerous "foundation" where disenfranchised young women are brainwashed.

Perfect

After a rape victim is abducted from the hospital and later found dead, the detectives suspect several young socialites of her rape, at a Manhattan nightclub, and subsequent murder.

Soulless

A woman with a high-risk pregnancy disappears and her ex-boyfriend, who's the father, and engaged to the boss' daughter, is under suspicion. In a race against time to find her as her delivery date approaches, Benson and Stabler are faced with more than one suspect willing to take the fall for the crime.

Tragedy

Detectives enlist Dr. Huang's help as they investigate the deaths of two high-school basketball players gunned down while shooting hoops in the gymnasium and the connection to an illegal marketing campaign by a major pharmaceutical company.

Manic

A psychiatrist with unconventional methods is found sexually assaulted, unconscious and near death in a crack house. It's easier said than done to get her to cooperate with the investigation as they are hampered by doctor-patient confidentiality as she may have been attacked by one of her patients.

Mother

A female undercover agent for the DEA is raped and murdered, leading to a complicated investigation and the arrest of a suspect highly connected with a Colombian drug cartel. This is the toughest case of Cabot's career as she is faced with death threats on herself and her family along with pressure to yield the case to federal authorities.

Loss

A newborn baby is found dead in a gutter, sending the detectives on a hunt for the mother. She too turns up murdered, and the clues point to a serial child molester.

Serendipity

A schizophrenic homeless man kidnaps a boy he thinks is his son, murdering a man in the process. In resolving the case, with Dr. Huang's help, a private mental health facility is brought into question.

Coerced

While patrolling, police stumble upon an attack in progress at Momma Sue’s restaurant on the pregnant owner. Her husband is arrested and then seeks to have her charged with neglect for drinking during her pregnancy. The detectives discover it's not the first time a child has been exposed to the devastating repercussions of her uncontrolled alcoholism.

Choice

Benson and Stabler have trouble identifying a male murder victim in his 20's found in a pile of sheets in the West Village; they later suspect an outspoken minister who was in the process of flooding the victim with hate mail and death threats. When the activist's alibi checks out, the detectives turn their attention to a professor who objects to the victim's thesis on the failure of sexual re-education groups.

Abomination

A subway commuter is found castrated and bleeding profusely, leading the detectives to discover their "victim" may be the perpetrator in abducting women and forcing them to live in his dungeon for several years as his bride. As the detectives prepare to arrest their victim turned suspect, Benson arrives to find him murdered.

The Best Seasons of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

The Best Seasons of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Season 17

Season 5

Season 10

Season 3

Season 6

Season 7

Season 14

Season 9

Season 8

Season 2

Season 15

Season 1

Season 13

Season 23

Season 21

Season 19

Season 20

Season 26

Season 24

Season 18

Season 22

Season 16

Season 25

Season 11

Season 12

Season 4