Abstract
The prime-time program Law & Order: Special Victims Unit offers a unique blend of characteristics, with its allowed focus on sexual assult and its location within the tradition of the historically masculine detective genre. We argue that SVU's depiction of sexual assault integrates feminist insights, but its depictions of women criminals and feminine qualities remain problematic. Analysis of episodes that center on the dynamics of the family and crimes committed by women helps to point out how the series recreates the idea of the “monstrous maternal.” SVU's contradictory combination of feminist insights and denigration of feminine qualities represents a new stage of televisual feminism.
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