How Realistic Is 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'? Inside the Real Elite Squad

How much do ‘SVU’ detectives make a 12 months? How realistic is the show? Here’s what you wish to have to learn about the real-life salaries of the display’s stars.

Source: Virginia Sherwood/NBC

If you're a Law & Order: Special Victims Unit fanatic like we're, you'll have puzzled a few instances whether the events we see unfold on the show's One Police Plaza (affectionately abbreviated on the display as "1 PP") are anything like what is going on in real life.

And whilst we will be able to all more than likely agree that the ripped-from-the-headlines stories and myriad of twist-filled cases are certainly built for the sake of target audience entertainment, how realistic is SVU in a different way?

If you have got ever puzzled how a lot real sex-crime detectives and attorneys make a yr, what precinct the show in point of fact takes position in, and whether or not the events on Law & Order: SVU unfold like in the real global, stay reading for the whole thing you wish to have to find out about the real-life NYPD your favourite display is in accordance with.

Source: Virginia Sherwood/NBC

How realistic is 'SVU'?

First issues first, there is indeed a Special Victims Unit in the NYPD, and what's extra, there is one in every borough. This wasn't all the time the case, as Linda Fairstein, a former Special Victims' prosecutor, who allowed Mariska Hargitay and Stephanie March to shadow her work prior to SVU's debut season, tells USA Today

A unit dedicated particularly to intercourse crimes did not arrive to New York's DA place of business till the mid 1970s, and Linda spent the first few years of her 30-year tenure there growing "ways to work shoulder to shoulder with the New York Police Department's Sex Crimes Unit." 

However, whilst we get to look the entirety of a case wrap up well in hour-long episodes on the show, real-life special victims cases take a median of 5 years to finish, consistent with one lawyer who works in Manhattan's DA place of business.

Source: Virginia Sherwood/NBC

In 2019, NYPD's real Special Victims Division were given a total makeover in order to assist victims really feel extra comfortable in coming forward about intercourse crimes, and identical to in the show, the squad has now instituted compulsory trauma and empathy coaching for their detectives.

How a lot do SVU detectives make a year?

In Season 20, Episode 14, Carisi mentions that the detectives on the squad (he is not yet operating for the DA at this level) make $80k a 12 months. Based on what real-life detectives at an elite unit make, many redditors speculate that Olivia Benson makes around $150k, given her time on the unit and how she worked her method up the ranks.

"The newer ones, Rollins and Carisi, probably pull in the high 90s, not including OT and other bonuses," one consumer writes, including that Finn almost definitely "makes into the 100s."

Source: Virginia Sherwood/NBC

Thanks to twenty years of inflation, these salaries seem a lot more livable—on New York standards—than the $54,000 with extra time that Stabler mentions earning toward the starting of the collection' run.

What precinct does 'SVU' happen in?

Law & Order: SVU takes position at NYPD's sixteenth Precinct, however wager what: there is no 16th Precinct in New York City! If it have been real, it would be located somewhere in midtown Manhattan between the Midtown South (14th) and Midtown North (18th) Precincts.

In fact, this fictional sixteenth Precinct is used during different NBC/Universal presentations, including Mr. Robot

But the real-life location of NYPD's Special Victims Division is actually downtown, at 137 Centre Street, which makes much more sense than midtown, since the detectives and lawyers are continuously seen walking round decrease Manhattan when they're now not inside the squad room. 

New episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit air Thursdays at 10 p.m. on NBC.

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