List of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit characters

Since its debut in September 1999, the series has followed the career of Olivia Benson, as she progresses from the rank of Detective, working with a partner (initially Elliot Stabler, and later Nick Amaro), to Sergeant and then to Lieutenant, replacing Donald Cragen as commanding officer of SVU, and then to Captain.

A conspiracy theorist and dedicated detective, Munch is first partnered with Brian Cassidy (Dean Winters), whom he thinks of as a kind of younger brother, alternately poking fun at him and imparting (often questionable) advice on life and women.

As SVU Commanding Officer, he is portrayed as a somewhat stern but understanding father figure to the detectives who work under him, often giving them a great deal of leniency because he trusts their ability to get results.

Cragen departs at the end of "Amaro's One-Eighty" after his girlfriend Eileen gets two tickets for a six-month cruise around the world and he decides to use his unused leave time to carry him through until June, when he is set to hit the mandatory retirement age.

The youngest and least experienced member of the precinct, he has a genuine desire to put rapists and child molesters in prison, but lacks the professional detachment necessary to deal with the often grisly sex crimes.

Cragen sends him to interview a young girl who was repeatedly raped and brutalized, causing Cassidy to realize that he cannot emotionally handle the types of crimes that a SVU detective must deal with on a daily basis.

Rollins tries to prove to Benson and Amaro that the rapist originated in Atlanta and has come to New York for new prey, almost falling victim to him in an attempt to flush him out, since he has a preference to blonde and athletic women.

Muncy initially has a rough start at her new assignment due to her temper and overconfidence and she gets on the wrong side of Fin for leaving food in his car and returning it to him with an empty gas tank.

In "And a Trauma in a Pear Tree", she is unable to keep her emotions in check during a cross-examination in court and her testimony is thrown out and the case declared a mistrial due to her outburst, earning her the ire of ADA Carisi.

But Greylek also has a softer side, as she warns Stabler to get a good defense attorney after his daughter Kathleen (Allison Siko), who has bipolar disorder, is charged with breaking and entering and theft, because the DA's office will prosecute her.

She is last seen doing a press conference with Cragen, Benson, and Stabler on the steps of the courthouse while the doctor's attorney hands the SVU squad a lawsuit for failure to take action against Keppler immediately.

West next appeared in the third episode, "Behave", in which Benson works with to get justice for a rape victim named Vicki Sayers (Jennifer Love Hewitt), and to ensure that Bill Harris (James Le Gros), her rapist, is put away.

In her final episode, "Bombshell", Hardwicke attempts to convict twins Cassandra (Rose McGowan) and Doug (Ryan Hurst)—who are also in a sexual relationship—for their involvement in a man's brutal stabbing along with fraud crimes in New York and Miami.

Defense attorney Bayard Ellis (Andre Braugher) accuses the NYPD of racially profiling the defendant, who is African-American, and reveals that Tutuola and Rollins frisked three identical suspects - all of which result in Cutter losing the case.

In "Father's Shadow", Cutter is the lead prosecutor when a reality show producer named Fred Sandow (Michael McKean) is accused of raping young first-time actresses.

Referred to as the executive assistant to the District Attorney, or the DA's "number two", Haden is a dedicated prosecutor who is assigned a case with Benson and the SVU squad when the CEO of a private military contractor is confronted by Occupy Wall Street protesters and later found drugged and sexually assaulted in a park.

In the episode, "Funny Valentine", Barba and the detectives have a tough time convincing pop star Micha Green (Tiffany Robinson) to testify against her abusive boyfriend, hip-hop artist Caleb Bryant (Eugene Jones III).

In the final episode of season 20, Stone devises a fake prosecution to entrap serial rapist Rob Miller (Titus Welliver), and tells one of his victims to lie under oath.

Carisi and his three sisters grew up "off Arden Avenue" in Staten Island, where their parents still reside; in real-life, it is located within one of the few remaining New York City districts with a significant population of Italian-Americans.

Carisi gets off to a rough start with his new colleagues in the sixteenth season premiere episode "Girls Disappeared", coming off as blunt and insensitive during his initial meeting with Sergeant Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Detective Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish).

Unlike his older, more seasoned colleagues, he has difficulty keeping his emotions in check when confronted by the horrific crimes he sees, especially those involving religious leaders or the perpetrator abusing another family member.

Though he is liked and respected by the SVU detectives and they generally defer to his professional judgment, his diagnoses sometimes hinder prosecutions, particularly where he finds mental illness, making defendants either not fully responsible for their crimes, or not fit to stand trial.

The reason for his departure is not revealed until the season 13 episode "Father Dearest" in which Dr. Huang returns to the SVU squad temporarily to aid in an investigation and tells them about his new assignment in Oklahoma City.

"[61] Masterson reprises the role in the seventh-season episode, "Ripped", where she helps Detective Stabler come to terms with unresolved issues in what Baer called "an emotionally devastating scene".

[64] He works on another case with Cabot in the episode "Manic", where a child kills two high school students and is given medication from his mother due to an illegal marketing campaign by the major pharmaceutical company Tauscher-Leto.

Lewis accompanies Benson and Amaro back to Manhattan, where she observes the interrogation and pleads with Captain Cragen to let her have a shot at the suspect after the detectives could not get the man to admit to killing the fifth victim.

Pieces of the confession begin to fall apart as Munch and Rollins finds evidence missing in the cold case file and the boyfriend of the victim admits to having a romantic relationship with Agent Lewis.

Executive ADA David Haden, the prosecutor who is re-investigating the case and Benson's love interest, is confronted by Ellis about their relationship and threatens to expose them if they didn't do the right thing.

Ellis returns in the season 14 episode, "Monster's Legacy", when Detective Benson asks him to look into the case of Reggie Rhodes (Mike Tyson), who is scheduled to be executed after being convicted of murder in Ohio.

In season 17, he names his son, Mike (Andy Karl), Manhattan SVU's new sergeant, and is devastated by his death in a domestic violence dispute between a corrupt corrections officer (Brad Garrett) and his wife.