Amanda Rollins is a fictional character on the NBC police procedural drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, portrayed by Kelli Giddish.
The character is at first portrayed as wet behind the ears and over-eager, and is frequently chastised by Captain Donald Cragen (Dann Florek) for getting ahead of herself.
Shortly after transferring to the 16th Precinct, Rollins investigates a series of rapes that she believes are being committed by a suspect in one of her cases in Georgia.
Rollins tries to prove to Detectives Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Nick Amaro (Danny Pino) that the rapist originated in Atlanta and has come to New York for new prey.
[8] In the season 14 episode "Deadly Ambition", Kim shows up at Rollins' door after leaving her abusive boyfriend, Jeff Parker (Theis Weckesser), who is also the father of her unborn child.
Eventually, however, she discovers that Kim staged the rape to manipulate Rollins into killing Parker, all so she could collect on his life insurance policy.
[10] In "Spousal Privilege", Rollins expresses the belief that domestic violence should be kept private unless the victim wishes to come forward, feeling that the police have no right to make choices on a woman's behalf.
While Rollins is in labor, she suffers a placental abruption, almost resulting in her death, but she survives and gives birth to a baby girl she names Jesse.
Her partner, Dominick "Sonny" Carisi, (Peter Scanavino), who comes from a large family, frequently assists Rollins with the baby.
[13] In "Heightened Emotions", Rollins’ turbulent relationship with her sister is revisited, as Kim is granted parole after having apparently gotten sober and found religion.
When she is stunned by his reaction offering to pay for her abortion, after bonding with a girl who is separated from her mother and would like another sibling, she later decides to keep the baby, telling Pollack she does not need anything from him.
The experience unnerves Kim so badly that she voluntarily returns to prison in order to undergo drug treatment, leaving her son in her mother's custody.
In the Season 24 episode "And a Trauma in a Pear Tree," Rollins marries Carisi and retires from the NYPD in order to accept an adjunct professorship in criminal behavior at Fordham University.
The season 13 episode "Home Invasions" reveals not only that Rollins struggles with a gambling addiction, but that she owes money to a suspect in one of SVU’s murder investigations.
In the season 15 episode "Rapist Anonymous", Rollins is caught in the middle of a case when a woman from her program claims to have been raped by her sponsor.
When the alleged rapist is killed, the woman is put on trial and Rollins testifies on her behalf, alienating her colleagues at SVU.
One of the criminals is in fact an undercover police officer, Lt. Declan Murphy, who enlists Rollins to help him with a sting operation to arrest the club's owners.
[18] NBC announced on June 27, 2011, that Giddish would join the cast of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit for its thirteenth season along with Cold Case's Danny Pino as Detective Nick Amaro, coinciding with Christopher Meloni's departure from the series.
"[22] Rather than have both newcomers paired together, Rollins is primarily partnered with Detective Odafin "Fin" Tutuola, a factor which contributed to the character's positive reception.
Ice-T, who has portrayed Tutuola since the show's second season, praised both Giddish and Pino in the wake of Chris Meloni's departure, "We had to regroup, like a football team," said Ice-T. "The quarterback changed, but we still had to move the ball down the field.