True crime is one of the most popular genres right now. From books to movies and television shows, there are always cases (or a specific point of view) that haven't been explored before. With the internet, it has never been easier to research and learn about these stories. This, combined with an exponential growth of real cases being picked up for production every year, makes it unsurprising how popular they really are.
Before the true crime was officially phenomenon launched by podcasts like Serial and docuseries like The Jinx, procedural crime shows were as close as the average audience would get to a crime scene and a courtroom. There are some series that solidified the genre and therefore helped create an increasing interest in these types of stories — even if, at first, they were only fictional. One of them is on air to this day, almost a quarter of a century later, and that is Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
Here is a bit more about this new phenomenon and how the Law & Order spin-off helped create the true crime obsession.
True Crime: A Recent Phenomenon
In the recent past, there has been a new passion that quickly infiltrated most entertainment outlets: the true crime obsession. Fictional serial killers with morals, such as Dexter, don't make the cut (pun intended) as they used to. Now, for a story to grab its ever-so-demanding audience, it needs to be based (even if loosely) on something that actually happened, the gorier, the better. From podcasts to docuseries to whole television shows that recreate what happened, there has never been so much being said about real life criminal cases.
There is no denying that crime procedural shows have been popular since the beginning of television. The first crime procedural aired on BBC from 1938 to 1939 and was called Telecrime. In 1946 the show became Telecrimes. The series challenged the audience to figure the mystery out before Inspector Holt, who is the first detective to appear on television.
There are some clear downsides to these dark stories having such a big outlet. One of them is that when a crime like this occurs, many are desensitized by having listened to or seen to hundreds of hours of similar crimes. Another one that has been brought to attention a lot recently: there is a true crime tendency toward glorifying the perpetrators (usually serial killers). The victims are not the important part of these stories, becoming (a lot of times) a meaningless background for the main character to act. However, in Law & Order: SVU, the victims are the core of the show.
SVU: The Disturbing and the Gory
Currently in its 24th season, Law & Order: Special Victim Unit is one of the longest-running shows on American television (losing the first spot only to The Simpsons). It is not possible to talk about true crime and its new level of obsession without talking about the show that has been exploring gruesome crimes every week since 1999. The show started as a spin-off series by the same producer of Law & Order, Dick Wolf. However, the spin-off quickly became even more famous than its predecessor, for multiple reasons, especially because of iconic TV Detective Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), one of the protagonists.
In the first episode, the characters talk about a man molesting a corpse as well as a man having his penis cut off. The victim turned out to be a war criminal who had raped over 65 women. From the very beginning the show talked about the difference between normal and sexual-related deaths, which is the focus of the department they are in. Elements such as stabbing correlate a lot to serial killers, as most killings have a sexual nature that may not be extremely apparent. The show kept informing its audience to a high degree of these particular elements and types of cases that thus far hadn't happened (this way) on television before.
There is no sugarcoating the realities of these crimes in the series, which can be pretty gruesome. Law & Order: SVU also highlighted from the beginning the trauma the victims experienced – which will affect their lives forever. This, as said before, is one of today's most recurrent criticisms of the true crime genre. There is a lot of trauma baked into how the show is constructed, which can be upsetting or romanticizing for critics, but for some is its appeal (as a gritty and seemingly authentic show): it feels very close to an actual investigation. The locations and dates of the events are described before almost every scene, giving the impression that time is passing as these detectives try to solve these cases.
SVU Is Based On Real Life Cases
Combined with all the factors priorly mentioned, the show has one more element that solidifies its influence in today's phenomenon: various cases were based on actual life occurrences that received media coverage. Therefore, the viewer recognized some cases and could dive deeper into them after the episode ended, or could explore news they hadn't heard before. From mothers killing their daughters in the tenth season, like the Casey Anthony trial, to disappearances, like the Natalee Holloway-inspired an episode in season seven, the show gets inspiration from various types of criminal cases.
So much so that the series, which originally influenced the true crime genre, itself became influenced by true crime hysteria. One of the episodes of season 18, Making a Rapist, was inspired by the Netflix true crime docuseries Making a Murderer. The long-running series saw the potential of utilizing cases people were currently talking about and getting inspired by them. This way, the audience feels even more connected with the characters, especially Detective Benson.
There is no way of affirming that the show single-handedly created the true crime phenomenon (that's a long process that involves great true crime documentaries like The Thin Blue Line and the podcast boom), but watching deeply violent and disturbing crimes every week, based on newspaper headlines and treated with respect and no sugar-coating, certainly helped.