page_title: Behave (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit)
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: Behave (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) / Production
caption_attribution_description: English: Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni filming on season 12 of Law &amp; Order: Special Victims Unit on West 111th Street in New York.
context_page_description: "Behave" is the third episode of the twelfth season of the police procedural Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and the 251st episode overall. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on September 29, 2010. The episode, which was inspired by rape kit backlogs, follows Detective Olivia Benson helping a repeat rape victim stand up to her attacker, and finding the evidence to put him away. Meanwhile, the rapist could possibly walk because the evidence against him has been misplaced, poorly stored and even accidentally destroyed.
  The episode was written by long-time Law & Order: SVU writer, Jonathan Greene and was directed by Helen Shaver. It was inspired by the backlog of rape kits across the United States and the story of California rape victim, Helena Lazaro, whose evidence went unprocessed for years. Skeet Ulrich made a special guest appearance in this episode as his Law & Order: LA character, Detective Rex Winters, who was on Vicki's rape case when she lived in Los Angeles. Law & Order: LA originally premiered on NBC directly after this episode.
context_section_description: "Behave" was written by Jonathan Greene and directed by Helen Shaver. Mariska Hargitay filmed a portion of this episode, late August 2010 in Los Angeles with Law & Order: LA star, Skeet Ulrich. Hargitay was attending the Primetime Emmy Awards, in which she was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. This episode was the first time Law & Order: SVU had shot an episode on the West Coast. "Behave" is inspired by rape survivor and advocate Helena Lazaro, who spoke at a fundraiser for Hargitay's Joyful Heart Foundation; several years earlier, she submitted to an exam for a rape evidence collection kit that was ignored by police. "I'm so honored that the SVU writers see the value in telling this story," says Hargitay. "And it's very cool how they're weaving our two shows together." Neal Baer, the series' show runner/executive producer at the time, said after he heard the Lazaro's testimony, "One of the stories was about how they weren't opening the kits. This guy was out there and he would have been stopped years before. I leaned over and whispered to one of our writers and said, 'This is it,'" he recalled.
  When Jennifer Love Hewitt, who portrayed Vicki Sayers, was cast in the episode, Baer told TV Guide, "One of the reasons we wanted to do this episode is because it addresses Mariska Hargitay's passion for rape kits, which can help gather evidence to convict the rapists. But for some reason these kits have been sitting around unopened in cities all over the country." Jennifer Love Hewitt noted the role was like nothing she has done before: raw and stripped-down. "Looks-wise, wardrobe-wise, hair-wise, makeup-wise ... [I had to] take everything off and be something that I've never been before. [It] really allowed me emotionally and physically and mentally to go to a different place," she said. Hewitt hopes that her portrayal bolsters the message by putting a face to it. "It's showing you what this issue can do to someone, and it's hopefully making [people] feel it... it's a gift that we get to be able to tell those stories. And it's a duty to tell them."
  A day prior to the episode airing, Baer and Hargitay wrote an article for The Huffington Post; the article states that hundreds of thousands of rape kits across the country are not tested because of budget constraints. Baer and Hargitay write, "By failing to test these rape kits, we are telling victims that pursuing justice doesn't matter, that convicting violent perpetrators and taking them off our streets is not a top priority." They also point out that the city of New York eliminated their backlog in 2003 and the city's arrest rate for rape jumped from 40 to 70 percent.
  Hargitay and Baer note what Helena had to say when her rape kit was tested after 13 years and her rapist was finally identified: "Finally, my nightmares have stopped almost altogether. I have a sense of security that I haven't felt in over a decade. My home is my own. My family is safe." Baer and Hargitay add that, "'Behave,' shows the dire consequences of the rape kit backlog. We hope it will move you to action. To learn more about how you can help, go to a new web-site launching on September 29, endthebacklog.org. Together we can end the rape kit backlog and bring justice to victims."
caption: Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni filming on West 111th Street in Manhattan for the episode on August 10, 2010
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