The Best Detectives On Law & Order: SVU Ranked By Skill

[TMC]

https://www.looper.com/1154298/the-b...nked-by-skill/

BY WILL FANCHER/JAN. 7, 2023 7:15 AM EST

Being an SVU detective is a tough gig. As described in the opening narration of the long-running spin-off "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," the crimes they investigate are considered "especially heinous," often dealing in sexual violence. Week in and week out for over 20 years now, the unit has been confronted with some of the worst acts that a human can commit against another person: Rape and incest, murder, sex trafficking, and more. Some episodes are "ripped from the headlines," while others are tales as old as time.

The constant stream of misery, often perpetrated against society's most vulnerable and marginalized, wears on the detectives who choose this line of work. Where the original "Law & Order" series adopted a "just the facts" approach to its police drama, focusing on the case of the week above all, "SVU" delves into the personal lives of its detectives. Many of them have traumas in their backgrounds that drew them to SVU, only to find that those traumas make living with the work difficult. Nearly all of them are good cops, but the mark of a great SVU detective is being able to do the job without succumbing to despair or one's darker impulses. Let's take a look at the best "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" detectives, ranked by skill.