Olivia Benson

Olivia Benson was a female senior Detective, Sergeant, Lieutenant and eventually Captain of the Special Victims Unit at the NYPD. Throughout her years as a detective, she worked side-by-side with Nick Amaro, Elliot Stabler, Odafin Tutola, John Munch, and Amanda Rollins.

Born on the 7th of February 1968 in New York City, Benson joined the Police Academy after finding out that she was the product of her mother's rape. Quickly, she rose through the ranks of the NYPD, eventually being assigned to the 16th Precinct's Special Victims Unit. Being put with senior detective Elliot Stabler, Benson, throughout the years, became more influential when it came to working with the female victims and would become a voice of reason for subjects ranging from rape to even abortion(s). In 2011, Stabler retired from SVU after a shootout in the precinct causing him to shoot an armed young girl. After twelve years of working with Stabler, Benson took on Nick Amaro as her junior detective as she became a senior detective until his departure and her promotion to squad supervisor and eventually commanding officer.

Eventually, her superiors, Donald Cragen and John Munch, left SVU, leaving Benson to become the sergeant and captain of the squad. Shortly after her re-positioning in the team, she began to face many obstacles, including her kidnapping by William Lewis and being forced from her position as captain.

Early life
Born at an unknown date in New York City, Olivia was the daughter of Serena Benson and Joseph Hollister. After her mother was raped just before her marriage, Olivia was born and was repeatedly abused verbally by her mother because of this.

Case
Benson and Elliot had been called to a elementary school playground after a shooting at the location. After being filled in by one of the police officers, Olivia went to one of the kids who was shot and asked if anyone threatened her recently, but no one had threatened her.

Undercover in Oregon and Carl Dunford's murder
Around the time of September and October, 2006, the FBI recruited Olivia to go undercover as ecoterrorist Persephone James, though, it was inconveniently during the trial of a rapist that she put away five years prior. Olivia later engaged in the protest at the Fitzmore Pharmaceuticals, whom was dumping tons of pharmaceuticals into the river, including estrogen, which was beginning to feminize the fish, with some males beginning to lay eggs. After being undercover for five weeks in Oregon, Olivia attended one of the protests, which ended up with the local Sheriff Bartley and his police officers coming, and eventually, the police turned violent, ending up in Olivia trying to protect one of the protesters and was assaulted by one of the police officers.

Later, on October 9, Olivia woke up from repeatedly saying "Elliot" inside the Holy Cross Hospital in Walton County, Oregon. When she woke up, one of the other female protesters informed her about what happened after she was knocked-out, and the protester asked who "Elliot" was, but she said that he was nobody. Afterwards, a police officer arrested Olivia and took her to the Sheriff's office. Eventually, Olivia was being put into the "system" by the deputy sheriff who falsely first arrested her, and after she wanted a lawyer, and received one. Once meeting her lawyer, Olivia started to question her lawyer after he revealed his age, but she was eventually released on bail.

After being released and left the sheriff's office, she was stopped by Bartley and was brought back in for questioning about the murder of Carl Dunford. After being shown photographs of Dunford's murder, Olivia pointed out that his murder was a sex crime, and she then left. Afterwards, Olivia met with her case worker in the FBI, Porter, but later contacted Fin about Dunford, but was interrupted by two of her fellow protesters. Olivia then told the protesters that she thought that they should hold off on the protests until the murder investigation ended. Later on, around October 10, Olivia went to Fitzmore Pharmaceuticals in Hillsden, Oregon, to question some of Dunford's colleague's.

[[File:Olivia_ During her conversation with one of his colleague's, it was revealed that Dunford was working on an alternative birth control for men, prompting her to ask if there was another company trying to beat them to it, and it was revealed that almost everyone was trying to beat everyone else to it. She then found out that Dunford called his elderly mother everyday to see if she was okay, and when she went to her residents, she found Ibold was there and that no one was home. Later that night, Olivia went back to the [[Dunford Residence]] and could see that someone was inside, prompting her to catch the person, and found Carl's ex-wife, Debra Hartnell, and found out that Carl molested Debra's daughter.

She later spoke to Debra the next morning, and found out that the last straw for Debra and the reason for her leaving her husband was that she caught him in the act with their 12-year old babysitter. Later, Olivia went to the babysitter and found out that that molestation did not stop, and it had gone on for until she was thirteen. She later found out that Carl made a room under the garage for the girls he molested. That night, Olivia went into the house and found the secret room, prompting her to call the sheriff. Once he arrived, Olivia revealed that the molestations had gone one for at least eight years, as far as they had known, and later found out that one of the two known prints that was found was the missing Brittany Dunlap.

Shortly afterwards, Olivia was taken off of the assignment, but she then joined Porter in trying to find Brittany. She and Porter then drove to 44 Sawmill Road in Butteville, Oregon on October 12, and found an old "fort" that Brittany played in and found her. After they took her to the FBI interrogating room, Olivia talked to Brittany, and tried to convince her that the rape was not her fault. Brittany revealed that the day she killed Carl, that he tried to get her outside to pick another young girl to kidnap and bring her to the house.

After the investigation, Porter gave Olivia the message from Huang to get back to New York as soon as possible for the rape trial. The next day, Olivia made it to the trial and smiled at Chelsea as she sat next to her.

Avery Capshaw's Case
Sometime later, in February, Olivia was being sworn in as the Sergeant and Captain of the squad. However, during the ceremony, Rollins and Odafin were called on a case. After the ceremony, Olivia was briefed in on the case&mdash;a fifteen year old apparently had friends over at her house and disappeared, and when the parents came home, they found the place trashed and blood on their bed, forcing them to call SVU&mdash; and the squad continued to search for Avery Capshaw and her boyfriend, Manny Montero.

During the search, Avery had been sighted and was attempting to commit suicide, but her attempt was foiled when the police aired up a float of some kind.

Gridiron Soldier
Sometime after Rollins and Fin returned from their assignment&mdash;which turned out to be successful&mdash;in Chicago, a football recruit from Georgia visited a college in the city and wound up in jail after he became the victim of a hazing prank. The squad then investigated the school's program and uncover a pattern of abuse in the system.

Return Of The Prodigal Son
In 2021, Stabler returns to the NYPD after suffering a devastating personal loss. Stabler joins the Organized Crime Task Force reported to Captain Angela Wheatley and Sergeant Ayanna Bell. Stabler seeks Benson’s help when a suspect threatens Kathy and the kids. The squad rallies around him to investigate. As well as being assisted by SVU, Stabler also sets out to make things right with Benson after leaving without saying goodbye.

Family
Olivia's relationship with her both her maternal and paternal families could be considered very "frigid" and "not the greatest", as her father, Joseph Hollister, raped her mother, Serena Benson, who would often become drunk and hit Olivia.

Olivia's relationship with the rest of the Benson family is unknown, as her only known living relative in her maternal family was her mother, whom she did not have a good relationship with. Since Olivia was the "product of [her] mother's rape," her mother took to drinking and would often abuse her, only telling her the reason why when Olivia left her mother's residence for good. Shortly after this, Olivia took to becoming a police officer, to make sure that what happened to her mother [and Olivia herself] to never happen again.

To the extent of Olivia's relationship with her father's family is unknown, except for that she met and seemed to care for her half-brother, Simon Marsden, who even named his daughter after Olivia.

Olivia became the foster mother of Noah Porter after his biological mother was murdered. Olivia also attended all of the hearings that had concerned Noah, which led to her becoming the foster mother.

Elliot Stabler


Elliot Stabler was a Detective who spent most of his time at the NYPD in Manhattan's Special Victims Unit and Olivia's first partner in the unit, as well as one of her closest friends.

William Lewis
William Lewis was a serial rapist and murderer that was obsessed with Olivia.

Behind the scenes
Olivia Benson is played by Mariska Hargitay.

Olivia is one of the few remaining characters from the first seasons still on the show, with Odafin Tutola and Brian Cassidy, as of the 16th season.