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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The discovery of a beaten infant leads detectives on a search for the attacker, who may be a pedophile. When the medical evidence shows the injuries were a result of shaken baby syndrome, their focus shifts to those closest to the child: her mother, the mother's boyfriend and the nannies.

The investigation into the death of a pregnant high school student exposes a long-held family secret, which precipitates yet another violent death and eventually the destruction of two families.

The conviction of a group of sociopathic high school bullies who turned on one of their own escalates into even more violence and death in their exclusive private school.

The death of a wealthy senior citizen leads to an investigation that uncovers a serial killer with childhood abandonment issues who targets the elderly.

With the encouragement of a radio host, who has a dirty mouth on him, one teenager is raped and another is imprisoned when they are thrown together by the manipulative adults in their lives whose sole motivations are celebrity and publicity for their own self-serving interests.

A missing teenager found beaten and tied up in a college dormitory under construction claims that she was raped by three students, but as the investigation proceeds and information obtained by the police and the press causes her story to unravel quickly, the girl recants. Since Benson remains convinced that a rape did occur, the focus of the investigation shifts to the girl's overly-protective stepfather who has resisted the investigation from its onset.

When the body of a seven-year-old child is found, the squad again begins to investigate convicted serial killer Lucas Biggs, believing that he molested and murdered the boy. While Biggs can detail every child he ever molested, he swears that he has no memory of this one. Further investigations show that there is another suspect, but before he can be picked up, someone picks him off.

The discovery of the bodies of two young gay men who were both meth addicts as well as victims of a new strain of AIDS that can kill its victims in less than a year leads to an investigation. Tutuola learns that his son, Ken, is gay, and has difficulty accepting it, even though he and Benson end up going to Ken for help with infiltrating an anti-meth group. The group's leader, Gabriel, soon becomes their top suspect when the squad realises that the two men died because they passed the disease on.

After young Sean Hamill is stabbed in the back at the schoolyard, detectives are led to Charlie Monaghan, the older boy who had previously gotten into trouble over Hamill, but it isn't long before their attention turns to Monaghan's half-sister Emma Boyd. Hamill had been torturing the little girl for months because she had two mothers. After getting a nice deal for Emma's side, Benson and Stabler are thrown for a loop when Emma's biological grandparents accuse Zoe, who had never legally adopted Emma, of sexually molesting the little girl, and evidence seems to support their claims.

With young Calvin in her care, Detective Benson continues the search for his drug-addict mother, Vivian, but Detective Stabler notices a strong bond forming between Benson and the boy. When Vivian’s name comes up during a rape investigation, Captain Cragen assigns Detectives Fin and Munch to the case instead. However, it will take more than Cragen’ s orders to keep Benson away.

A young man finds that his girlfriend Larissa Welsh has been attacked in her apartment with evidence that points to her buried past. Detectives Benson and Stabler go in search of her attacker and discover that an elderly man, Orville Underwood, may have been involved in traumatic events of Welsh’s past. For the detectives, solving the case comes down to who was in possession of the evidence.

Two high-powered attorneys face each other across the aisle when Casey Novak returns to the team, and Joe Dekker takes a leave of absence from his Los Angeles duties after his cousin is charged with rape. Dekker's unwavering belief in his cousin's innocence, and a court disturbance make Novak and Benson take another look at the evidence, which leads them to someone playing a very long game in the name of hatred.

SVU tries to figure out who was responsible for the real-life rape of an actress during an interactive theater performance that everybody just assumed was part of the show.