Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it is also primarily produced. Created and produced by Dick Wolf and airs on NBC, the series premiered on September 20, 1999 as a spin-off of Wolf's successful crime drama Law & Order. Currently in its 11th season, the series has produced 246 episodes to date.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit originally centered almost exclusively around the detectives of the Special Victims Unit in a fictional version of the 16th Precinct of the New York City Police Department (NYPD). In the style of the original Law & Order, episodes are often "ripped from the headlines" or loosely based on a real crime that received media attention. The show stars Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler, a senior detective in the Manhattan SVU, and Mariska Hargitay as his partner, Detective Olivia Benson, a rookie to the unit who is the child of a rape. As the series progressed, additional supporting characters were added as allies of the detectives in the Manhattan District Attorney's office and the Medical Examiner's office. Typical episodes follow the detectives and their allies as they investigate and prosecute sexually based offenses.