Olivia Benson

Captain **Olivia "Liv" Margaret Benson** (born February 7, 1968) is the commanding officer of the Manhattan Special Victims Unit. Before taking over SVU, Benson worked as an SVU detective and was partnered with Elliot Stabler for over twelve years. After Elliot's resignation, Benson partnered primarily with Nick Amaro before she became a sergeant and took over the SVU unit from Captain Donald Cragen.

When she was a detective, her badge number was 4015. When she was a sergeant, her badge number was 01139 and as a lieutenant, she no longer has a badge number.

In 2019, she was promoted to Captain by Deputy Chief William Dodds. (Template:SVU: "I'm Going To Make You a Star)

## Family

Olivia was born in 1968 as the product of the rape of Serena Benson in the spring of 1967 by a food salesman named Joseph Hollister, who later committed suicide. At the time of the rape, Serena had been working in the cafeteria of Columbia University. Benson's mother, Serena, was an alcoholic who emotionally and physically abused Benson. Serena died from injuries sustained in a fall in 2000 when she was drunk, which left Benson deeply saddened. Olivia never visited her mother's grave, until a case left her shook.

Benson has a half-brother named Simon Marsden. She didn't find out about her brother until she illegally ran her DNA through a kinship analysis. (Template:SVU: "Haystack") Simon was later accused of a series of break-ins and one rape, for which he was later cleared. Simon makes his way into her life again, this time with a family of his own, including a daughter he named Olive after her aunt. Simon sought her help in keeping his family intact but they failed. In 2019, Olivia bumps into Simon after a few years and wanted lunch with her and Noah but died of an overdose.

In 2010, Olivia was appointed to be the legal guardian of Gladys Dalton's cocaine afflicted premature daughter who passed away after Benson gave the doctors permission to perform surgery to try and save her life. (Template:SVU: "Savior")

Olivia is appointed Calvin Arliss' legal guardian too, but her legal guardian rights were then terminated by Calvin's mother through his paternal grandparents. After her legal guardian rights were terminated, she is shown to still have kept in contact with Calvin, since he came over to New York on Halloween to see Olivia. (Template:SVU: "Trophy", "Rescue", "Missing Pieces")

In 2014, after the Season 15 finale, Benson becomes the court-appointed custodial guardian of Noah Porter, an orphaned baby who she rescued from child pornographers. The appointment is for a trial period of one year, with the option to apply for legal adoption at the end of that period; Although the year is rocky due to Noah's health issues and the demands of her job, Benson formally adopts Noah a year later at the end of Season 16.

## Personality and sexual assault

Benson is deeply sympathetic to victims of sex crimes and as a result, she is often quick to believe victims' stories. Her former partner Elliot Stabler was often more skeptical of victims' accounts, which often brought the two partners into conflict. Benson's ability to sympathize with victims is a tremendous asset, but there are times when it comes back to haunt her.

In "Undercover", she went undercover in a women's prison to find a rapist and was almost raped herself until Detective Odafin Tutuola, also undercover there as a guard in the facility, managed to save her just moments before the man (a fellow guard) could violate her.

Afterward, Benson developed a severe case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, but has been receiving counseling for the assault and has been seen dealing with it more constructively. (SVU: "PTSD").

While speaking to a victim of a separate rape, the victim asked her if she was better having dealt with her rapist, and Benson told her that she was better, but that she wouldn't ever forget what happened. (SVU: "Smut")

At the end of the season 14 finale "Her Negotiation", Benson is kidnapped by serial rapist/murderer William Lewis.

Lewis makes her watch while he rapes and tortures the mother of his attorney and kills a police officer who attempted to pull him over. He then beats and tortures her, burning her with cigarettes and wire hangers, and holds her hostage for four days. Just as he is about to rape her, she breaks free, handcuffs him, and holds him at gunpoint. When he taunts her, she loses control and beats him within an inch of his life with an iron rod. She is rescued by her fellow detectives moments later, and Cragen puts her on mandatory leave so she can recover. (SVU: "Surrender Benson")

She returns to work in the following episode, "Imprisoned Lives", which takes place two months later, but is still haunted by the experience. She begins seeing a therapist to cope with the trauma. It is later revealed that Lewis survived and is in jail awaiting trial.

In "Psycho/Therapist", Lewis fires his new attorney and chooses to represent himself. He calls Benson as a witness and accuses her of assaulting him because he rejected her sexual advances. She vehemently denies it and lies under oath that he had broken free of his restraints and lunged at her. Lewis is found guilty of kidnapping and assaulting a police officer, but the jury voices doubts about Benson's story and acquits him of attempted rape. The episode closes with Benson weeping on the courthouse stairs and, four months later, Lewis being wheeled away on a stretcher.

In "Beast's Obsession", Lewis uses the distraction caused by his (self-induced) cardiac incident to escape from prison. He then rapes a teenaged girl, kidnaps her younger sister and threatens to kill her unless Benson tells the truth about her testimony. Benson holds a press conference and admits that she lied on the witness stand. When Lewis does not release the girl, Benson tracks him down and surrenders to him. With his hostage watching, Lewis at first attempts to rape Benson, but changes his mind when she refuses to show him fear; instead, he forces her to play Russian roulette with him. As a police squad closes in, Lewis taunts her one last time before committing suicide right in front of her.

In "Post-Mortem Blues", she is brought before a grand jury to explain her admission and Lewis' death. Her career is threatened until Declan Murphy tells the grand jury that he instructed Benson to lie in her press conference, thus clearing her of Lewis' death and possible perjury charges. Murphy then makes Benson his second-in-command.

She later identifies with a woman named Sarah Walsh who, like her, was sexually assaulted twice and helps both her and herself in dealing with these incidents.

While a dedicated officer, Benson is more likely to go to bat for women she deals with during cases than men and has shown skepticism during cases where women are the offenders and men are the victims, or allows her sympathy for the victim to cloud her judgment and make her commit actions without thinking. This was exemplified when she interrogated a man until he confessed to a crime which he was later found to be innocent of and sending him to prison for life, which could have been avoided if she was thinking clearly enough to check on the evidence. (Template:SVU: "Justice Denied")

## Skills and abilities

Benson speaks some Spanish, Russian, Italian, and French. She is also able to read the Miranda rights in two or three other languages. (Template:SVU: "Prodigy")

## Early life

Benson found out about the man who raped her mother and others. He knew about his daughter and kept track of her. He once tried to call her but got Serena instead. (Template:SVU: "Philadelphia", "Florida") Benson was a graduate of Siena College. (Template:SVU: "Stalked")

Benson and Serena seemed to care about each other a great deal. (Template:SVU: "Payback") Serena was worried about Benson working in the Special Victims Unit. Serena died as the result of a fall down the subway stairs across from a bar in(Template:SVU: "Taken"), Benson said her mother was a drunk. Benson became involved with a child who was neglected by her parents the way Benson felt neglected by her mother. (Template:SVU: "Abuse") Benson said she was in love with an older man and that she "couldn't have loved him more." (Template:SVU: "Wanderlust") Benson once told Casey Novak about an incident when she was 16. An older student of her mother asked her to marry him and when she told Serena that she was leaving, her mother who had been drinking flew into a rage and went after her with a broken bottle. Benson kicked her mother into a wall and ran to Simone Bryce for help. After arguing with ADA Sonya Paxton about alcoholism and seeing her drunk in court, she was moved to leave flowers at her mother's grave. (Template:SVU: "Intoxicated")

## Officer-involved shootings

* Roger Silver (Template:SVU: "Disrobed")
* Eric Plummer (Template:SVU: "Wrath")
* Gordon Rickett Template:C (Template:SVU: "Rage")
* Miles Sennet Template:C (Template:SVU: "Burned")
* Sergeant Tom Cole (Template:SVU: "Next Chapter")

## Relationships

* Nick Ganzner
* Kurt Moss
* Brian Cassidy
* David Haden
* Ed Tucker

## Trivia

* As of Amaro's One-Eighty, Benson is the last remaining main character from the first season of *Law and Order: Special Victims Unit*. However, Cragen, Munch, and Stabler have made guest appearances.
* Benson became a detective with SVU in May 1998 (Template:SVU: "Stalked").
* Benson and Stabler were partners for 13 years, not 12 as commonly referred to (Template:SVU: "Swing").
* Benson's blood type is A positive (Template:SVU: "Coreographed").
* As of Season 22, Benson has never been shot in the line of duty. She has, however, been stabbed off-duty in Season 9 while investigating a case and has been assaulted several times, as well as been stalked, kidnapped, and nearly raped and murdered while undercover.
* In a deleted scene in Season 2, it was shown that Serena Benson was never raped. In another deleted scene, Benson had met her father, a psychiatrist by the name of Robert Spencer.
* Benson is the longest-running character in the *Law & Order* franchise.
* Benson is the only main character in the *Law & Order* franchise who is a product of rape.
* Benson has been assaulted more than any other main character in the *Law & Order* franchise, with her getting assaulted at least once every season she has been in.
* Benson has the highest episode count of any main character in the *Law & Order* franchise, excluding Munch's appearances in Homicide: Life on the Street.
* Benson has had more promotions than any other main character in the *Law & Order* franchise.
* Benson is fluent in several languages, such as Italian, Spanish, Russian, and French. Alongside that, she can read the Miranda Rights in two different languages.
* Benson is the only main character in *SVU* who has dated a fellow member of the Special Victims Unit, that being Brian Cassidy.
* Benson is the only main character in *Law & Order: Special Victims Unit* whose parents and siblings are all deceased. Alongside that, she is the only character in the series who has lost a parent and a sibling during their time on the series, excluding Peter Stone who lost his father before his first appearance.
* Benson is the first main character on *Law & Order: Special Victims Unit* to speak in the entire series as well as the first female to speak in the series.
* She was born on February 7, 1968, which would make her 53 as of 2021.
* Benson has arrested all three of Noah's biological relatives (his parents and grandmother).
* With the death of Simon, her only known living biological relative is her niece Olivia Marsden.
* Benson has been assaulted more than any other main character in the franchise.
* There were plans for Benson to leave the series halfway during the thirteenth season, but those plans were scrapped.
* Benson has the second-highest episode count in both the franchise and non-franchise shows. John Munch holds both records, appearing on *SVU*, *Homicide: Life on the Street*, and several other shows.

## Appearances

* *Law & Order: Special Victims Unit* (22 seasons, 478 episodes):
	+ Season 1: "Payback" • "A Single Life" • "...Or Just Look Like One" • "Hysteria" • "Wanderlust" • "Sophomore Jinx" • "Uncivilized" • "Stalked" •"Stocks & Bondage" • "Closure (Part I)" • "Bad Blood" • "Russian Love Poem" • "Disrobed" • "Limitations" • "Entitled" • "The Third Guy" • "Misleader" • "Chat Room" • "Contact" • "Remorse" • "Nocturne" • "Slaves"
	+ Season 2: "Wrong Is Right" • "Honor" • "Closure (Part II)" • "Legacy" • "Baby Killer" • "Noncompliance" • "Asunder" • "Taken" • "Pixies" • "Consent" • "Abuse" • "Secrets" • "Victims" • "Paranoia" • "Countdown" • "Runaway" • "Folly" • "Manhunt" • "Parasites" • "Pique" • "Scourge"
	+ Season 3: "Repression" • "Wrath" • "Stolen" • "Rooftop" • "Tangled" • "Redemption" • "Sacrifice" • "Inheritance" • "Care" • "Ridicule" • "Monogamy" • "Protection" • "Prodigy" • "Counterfeit" • "Execution" • "Popular" • "Surveillance" • "Guilt" • "Justice" • "Greed" • "Denial" • "Competence" • "Silence"
	+ Season 4: "Chameleon" • "Deception" • "Vulnerable" • "Lust" • "Disappearing Acts" • "Angels" • "Dolls" • "Waste" • "Juvenile" • "Resilience" • "Damaged" • "Risk" • "Rotten" • "Mercy" • "Pandora" • "Tortured" • "Privilege" • "Desperate" • "Appearances" • "Dominance" • "Fallacy" • "Futility" • "Grief" • "Perfect" • "Soulless"
	+ Season 5: "Tragedy" • "Manic" • "Mother" • "Loss" • "Serendipity" • "Coerced" • "Choice" • "Abomination" • "Control" • "Shaken" • "Escape" • "Brotherhood" • "Hate" • "Ritual" • "Families" • "Home" • "Mean" • "Careless" • "Sick" • "Lowdown" • "Criminal" • "Painless" • "Bound" • "Poison" • "Head"
	+ Season 6: "Birthright" • "Debt" • "Obscene" • "Scavenger" • "Outcry" • "Conscience" • "Charisma" • "Doubt" • "Weak" • "Haunted" • "Contagious" • "Identity" • "Quarry" • "Game" • "Hooked" • "Ghost" • "Rage" • "Pure" • "Intoxicated" • "Night" • "Blood" • "Goliath"
	+ Season 7: "Demons" • "Design" • "911" • "Ripped" • "Strain" • "Raw" • "Starved" • "Rockabye" • "Storm" • "Alien" • "Infected" • "Blast" • "Taboo" • "Manipulated" • "Gone" • "Class" • "Venom" • "Fault" • "Fat" • "Web" • "Influence"
	+ Season 8: "Informed" • "Infiltrated" • "Underbelly" • "Choreographed" • "Scheherazade" • "Burned" • "Outsider" • "Loophole" • "Dependent" • "Haystack" • "Philadelphia" • "Sin" • "Responsible" • "Florida" • "Annihilated" • "Pretend" • "Screwed"
	+ Season 9: "Alternate" • "Avatar" • "Impulsive" • "Savant" • "Harm" • "Svengali" • "Blinded" • "Fight" • "Paternity" • "Snitch" • "Streetwise" • "Signature" • "Unorthodox" • "Inconceivable" • "Undercover" • "Closet" • "Authority" • "Trade" • "Cold"
	+ Season 10: "Trials" • "Confession" • "Swing" • "Lunacy" • "Retro" • "Babes" • "Wildlife" • "Persona" • "PTSD" • "Smut" • "Stranger" • "Hothouse" • "Snatched" • "Transitions" • "Lead" • "Ballerina" • "Hell" • "Selfish" • "Crush" • "Liberties" • "Zebras"
	+ Season 11: "Unstable" • "Sugar" • "Solitary" • "Hammered" • "Hardwired" • "Spooked" • "Users" • "Turmoil" • "Perverted" • "Anchor" • "Quickie" • "Shadow" • "P.C." • "Savior" • "Confidential" • "Witness" • "Disabled" • "Bedtime" • "Conned" • "Beef" • "Torch" • "Ace" • "Wannabe" • "Shattered"
	+ Season 12: "Locum" • "Bullseye" • "Behave" • "Merchandise" • "Wet" • "Branded" • "Trophy" • "Penetration" • "Gray" • "Rescue" • "Pop" • "Possessed" • "Mask" • "Dirty" • "Flight" • "Spectacle" • "Pursuit" • "Bully" • "Bombshell" • "Totem" • "Bang" • "Delinquent" • "Smoked"
	+ Season 13: "Scorched Earth" • "Personal Fouls" • "Blood Brothers" • "Double Strands" • "Missing Pieces" • "True Believers" • "Russian Brides" • "Educated Guess" • "Lost Traveler" • "Spiraling Down" • "Theatre Tricks" • "Official Story" • "Father's Shadow" • "Home Invasions" • "Hunting Ground" • "Child's Welfare" • "Justice Denied" • "Valentine's Day" • "Street Revenge" • "Father Dearest" • "Learning Curve" • "Strange Beauty" • "Rhodium Nights"
	+ Season 14: "Lost Reputation" • "Above Suspicion" • "Twenty-Five Acts" • "Acceptable Loss" • "Manhattan Vigil" • "Friending Emily" • "Vanity's Bonfire" • "Lessons Learned" • "Dreams Deferred" • "Presumed Guilty" • "Beautiful Frame" • "Criminal Hatred" • "Monster's Legacy" • "Secrets Exhumed" • "Deadly Ambition" • "Funny Valentine" • "Undercover Blue" • "Legitimate Rape" • "Born Psychopath" • "Girl Dishonored" • "Traumatic Wound" • "Poisoned Motive" • "Brief Interlude" • "Her Negotiation"
	+ Season 15: "Surrender Benson" • "Imprisoned Lives" • "American Tragedy" • "Internal Affairs" • "Wonderland Story" • "October Surprise" • "Dissonant Voices" • "Military Justice" • "Rapist Anonymous" • "Psycho/Therapist" • "Amaro's One-Eighty" • "Jersey Breakdown" • "Betrayal's Climax" • "Wednesday's Child" • "Comic Perversion" • "Gridiron Soldier" • "Gambler's Fallacy" • "Criminal Stories" • "Downloaded Child" • "Beast's Obsession" • "Post-Mortem Blues" • "Reasonable Doubt" • "Thought Criminal" • "Spring Awakening"
	+ Season 16: "Girls Disappeared" • "American Disgrace" • "Producer's Backend" • "Holden's Manifesto" • "Pornstar's Requiem" • "Glasgowman's Wrath" • "Chicago Crossover" • "Spousal Privilege" • "Pattern Seventeen" • "Forgiving Rollins" • "Agent Provocateur" • "Padre Sandungeuro" • "Decaying Morality" • "Intimidation Game" • "Undercover Mother" • "December Solstice" • "Parole Violations" • "Devastating Story" • "Granting Immunity" • "Daydream Believer" • "Perverted Justice" • "Parents' Nightmare" • "Surrendering Noah"
	+ Season 17: "Devil's Dissections" • "Criminal Pathology" • "Transgender Bridge" • "Institutional Fail" • "Community Policing" • "Maternal Instincts" • "Patrimonial Burden" • "Melancholy Pursuit" • "Depravity Standard" • "Catfishing Teacher" • "Townhouse Incident" • "A Misunderstanding" • "Forty-One Witnesses" • "Nationwide Manhunt" • "Collateral Damages" • "Star-Struck Victims" • "Manhattan Transfer" • "Unholiest Alliance" • "Sheltered Outcasts" • "Fashionable Crimes" • "Assaulting Reality" • "Intersecting Lives" • "Heartfelt Passages"
	+ Season 18: "Terrorized" • "Making a Rapist" • "Imposter" • "Heightened Emotions" • "Rape Interrupted" • "Broken Rhymes" • "Next Chapter" • "Chasing Theo" • "Decline and Fall" • "Motherly Love" • "Great Expectations" • "No Surrender" • "Genes" • "Net Worth" • "Know It All" • "The Newsroom" • "Real Fake News" • "Spellbound" • "Conversion" • "American Dream" • "Sanctuary"
	+ Season 19: "Gone Fishin'" • "Mood" • "Contrapasso" • "No Good Reason" • "Complicated" • "Unintended Consequences" • "Something Happened" • "Intent" • "Gone Baby Gone" • "Pathological" • "Flight Risk" • "Info Wars" • "The Undiscovered Country" • "Chasing Demons" • "In Loco Parentis" • "Dare" • "Send In The Clowns" • "Service" • "Sunk Cost Fallacy" • "The Book of Esther" • "Guardian" • "Mama" • "Remember Me" • "Remember Me Too"
	+ Season 20: "Man Up" • "Man Down" • "Zero Tolerance" • "Revenge" • "Accredo" • "Exile" • "Caretaker" • "Hell's Kitchen" • "Mea Culpa" • "Alta Kockers" • "Plastic" • "Dear Ben" • "A Story of More Woe" • "Part 33" • "Brothel" • "Facing Demons" • "Missing" • "Blackout" • "Dearly Beloved" • "The Good Girl" • "Exchange" • "Diss" • "Assumptions" • "End Game"
	+ Season 21: "I'm Going To Make You a Star" • "The Darkest Journey Home" • "Down Low In Hell's Kitchen" • "The Burden Of Our Choices" • "At Midnight In Manhattan" • "Murdered at a Bad Address" • "Counselor, It's Chinatown" • "We Dream Of Machine Elves" • "Can't Be Held Accountable" • "Must Be Held Accountable" • "She Paints For Vengeance" • "The Longest Night Of Rain" • "Redemption In Her Corner" • "I Deserve Some Loving Too" • "Swimming With The Sharks" • "Eternal Relief From Pain" • "Dance, Lies and Video Tape" • "Garland's Baptism By Fire" • "Solving For The Unknowns" • "The Things We Have To Lose"
	+ Season 22: "Guardians and Gladiators" • "Ballad Of Dwight and Irena" • "Remember Me In Quarantine" • "Sightless in a Savage Land" • "Turn Me On Take Me Private" • "The Long Arm Of The Witness" • "Hunt, Trap, Rape and Release" • "The Only Way Out Is Through" • "Return Of The Prodigal Son"
* *Law & Order* (2 seasons, 3 episodes):
	+ Season 10: "Entitled" • "Fools For Love"
	+ Season 16: "Flaw"
* *Law & Order: Trial by Jury* (1 episode):
	+ Season 1: "Day"
* *Law & Order: Organized Crime* (1 season, 3 episodes):
	+ Season 1: "What Happens in Puglia" • "Not Your Father's Organized Crime" • "The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of"
* *Chicago P.D.* (2 seasons, 3 episodes):
	+ Season 2: "They'll Have to Go Through Me" • "The Number of Rats"
	+ Season 3: "The Song of Gregory Williams Yates"
* *Chicago Fire* (1 season, 1 episode):
	+ Season 3: "We Called Her Jelly Bean"

Template:SVU Characters