Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Season 3
Law and Order Special Victims Unit Season 3 continues the overarching saga across 23 episodes. The series follows an American legal and crime television series featuring a specialized squad of detectives from the New York City Special Victims Unit who investigate sexually based offenses. Some of the episodes are loosely based on real crimes that have received media attention within the scope of the criminal justice s
Season 3 Lore Primer
Key plot threads, lore context, and character stakes you need to remember before diving into this season.
- The series focuses on the criminal justice system where sexually based offenses are considered especially heinous.
- A specialized unit of detectives investigates crimes with sexual motives within New York City.
- Some episodes of the television series are loosely based on real crimes that have received media attention.
- The overarching saga spans across previous and ongoing episodes following the Special Victims Unit.
Season overview
Law and Order Special Victims Unit Season 3 continues the overarching saga across 23 episodes. The series follows an American legal and crime television series featuring a specialized squad of detectives from the New York City Special Victims Unit who investigate sexually based offenses. Some of the episodes are loosely based on real crimes that have received media attention within the scope of the criminal justice system where sexually based offenses are handled.
Episode Guide
Season 3 Progress Shield
Repression
Sep 28, 2001 · 43 min
An 18-year-old girl is aided by her therapist in recalling repressed memories of childhood molestation by her father and reports the incest to Benson and Stabler in hopes of sparin
Wrath
Oct 5, 2001 · 43 min
The detectives investigate three murders that seemingly have no connection to each other, but each murder has ties to Benson's previous cases. As they join with the FBI to investig
Stolen
Oct 12, 2001 · 43 min
The kidnapping of an infant at a grocery store leads to an illegal adoption ring and the long lost closure of a case from 12 years prior of a murdered mother and missing baby which
Rooftop
Oct 19, 2001 · 44 min
When an HIV-positive male, with a record of assaulting underage girls, is discovered in a sexual clincher with a young woman on a rooftop, the detectives are determined to put him
Tangled
Oct 26, 2001 · 44 min
When arriving party guests find a prominent doctor beaten to death and his wife raped, the detectives have a parade of suspects and the realization that the wife was the intended v
Redemption
Nov 2, 2001 · 44 min
A string of murders leads detectives to question an initial suspect, the Soho Strangler, but they realize he might have been the wrong person all along.
Sacrifice
Nov 9, 2001 · 42 min
A man, who is shot and raped outside a gay bar, initially doesn't want to cooperate to find his shooter. When he finally does, the investigation leads to his family and turns his l
Inheritance
Nov 16, 2001 · 43 min
A series of brutal rapes and attacks on Asian women lead the police to a suspect who was himself a product of rape - his father being a rapist who was convicted. The question is br
Care
Nov 23, 2001 · 43 min
The battered body of a five-year-old girl in foster care is discovered and suspicion soon turns to members of the girl's foster family as well as to the girl's biological mother; w
Ridicule
Dec 14, 2001 · 43 min
What appears as a bizarre accidental death leads to a case involving a male stripper who claims that the deceased was one of three powerful women who raped him at a bachelorette pa
Monogamy
Jan 4, 2002 · 44 min
The pregnant wife of a psychiatrist is found in a parking garage, unconscious and bleeding from a gaping abdominal wound with her fetus missing. The investigation leads to infedili
Protection
Jan 11, 2002 · 44 min
A 6-year-old boy wounded in a shooting is brought to the ER but abandoned by his brother, who reported it, and their mother, who fears for her own life. The case leads the detectiv
Prodigy
Jan 18, 2002 · 43 min
Two people are found murdered in the park, including an animal rights activist who has been raped and then decapitated. Benson and Stabler must determine which of their two main su
Counterfeit
Jan 25, 2002 · 44 min
A woman is found raped and killed by her car. Then, a similar rape is committed and the victim says that a police officer raped her after pulling her over for a supposed driving vi
Execution
Feb 1, 2002 · 42 min
Detective Stabler and Dr. Huang question a convicted serial killer on death row, hours before his execution, with the hope of solving an old murder case for the sake of the victim'
Popular
Mar 1, 2002 · 43 min
Stabler's wife tells him that her friend, a high school nurse, treated a young girl for rape. Despite being advised not to find out further details, Stabler, with help from Benson,
Surveillance
Mar 8, 2002 · 43 min
An accomplished cellist is raped in her own apartment and the detectives are lead to a stalker who uses surveillance equipment and has been watching her every move.
Guilt
Mar 29, 2002 · 44 min
When A.D.A. Cabot is faced with a reluctant teenage witness in a child molestation case, she goes above and beyond the normal scope of duty in her search for evidence to convict th
Justice
Apr 5, 2002 · 43 min
A rebellious 16-year-old teenager is raped and murdered; the case becomes complex when they learn that her stepfather is a judge with whom she has had major problems.
Greed
Apr 26, 2002 · 44 min
Investigating the rape of the wife of a restaurateur during a robbery, leads the detectives to a similar assault, and to a locksmith.
Denial
May 3, 2002 · 44 min
When a heroin junkie is found raped, Tutuola takes an interest in her, but he's not the only one. The case turns into a bizarre murder investigation when the finger of a small chil
Competence
May 10, 2002 · 42 min
A mentally challenged girl with Down's Syndrome is pregnant, and the question is, was she raped or did she consent and is she competent enough to keep her child?
Silence
May 17, 2002 · 44 min
A murder in a church of a young cross-dresser leads Benson and Stabler to an alleged cover-up involving sexual child abuse by a priest.