APD Zone 2 Fangirl Report – SVU

I have to start by confessing that Law and Order: SVU is my favorite show to binge, so I was really looking forward to this presentation!

Now that my confession is out of the way, let’s move on. In all seriousness, this was the toughest part of the night. SVU mostly deals with women and children and a lot of sexual assault-based crimes. Domestic violence used to fall into this area but had been made its own division. It is important to note that they do see men in abuse situations as well, but not as frequently as women. The surprising thing is that they also end up dealing with all the custody and family law type situations too. If a kid is involved, so are they. Because of this, the folks in this unit do not wear uniforms. They soften their image specifically to make things easier on kids.

Let’s start with some stats:

• 1 in 5 women are raped at some point in their lives
• Only 5-7% of reported rapes are false
• 63% of rapes are never reported

Key take aways:

• Until sometime in the 1970s, it was legal for a man to rape his wife. I won’t even get near my women’s rights soapbox right now… I need to go find my apron and get back in the kitchen.
• Spanking kids, while totally controversial, is legal up until age 18 if it is not excessive – leaving visible bruises and injuries.
• The internet, while great in many ways, has been a huge issue for these crimes. Illicit chat rooms have provided a place for deviants to celebrate and share their conquests and predators can use false pretenses to lure an unsuspecting child into a bad situation.
• In Georgia you aren’t legitimately recognized as a parent to a child unless you have been married to its birth mother. Even being named on the birth certificate doesn’t do it. No marriage = no rights.  To establish rights there is whole legal process. Wow… what century is this?
• If a child under the age of 12 goes missing – there will be a full response… but after that age, it is dialed back significantly… kinda scary for a mother of a 17-year-old.
• The first place they search for a missing kid is at home. Young kids are really good at hiding…and then falling asleep. SVU has found “missing” kids asleep on the back shelves in closets, under fluffy sofa cushions, zipped into suitcases (they did it to themselves while playing!), in dog crates asleep with the dog… you name it they’ve seen it.

Bottom Line:

This is the division that deals with the stuff that makes my skin crawl. The people who do this for a living see things you and I really want to deny even exist. As was said multiple times during the presentation… Monsters do exist.