Name: Olivia Benson
Age: unknown
Occupation: NYPD Detective
Biographical information:
Olivia Benson was born and raised in New York. Unfortunately, her childhood always fell under the shadow of her birth father’s influence—he raped her mother, and nine months later Olivia was born. Being a child of rape heavily influenced her decision to join the NYPD. After she paid her dues as a beat cop and earned her gold shield, she requested to be assigned to the Manhattan Special Victims Unit, which investigates sexually based offenses and crimes against children and the elderly. SVU is all-volunteer, and most detectives rotate out after the mandatory two years. Benson never left and probably never will.
Serena Benson died during her daughter’s third year with the SVU. Olivia handled it in her usual way—by internalizing it and focusing on her job. When she was stalked by a wrongly convicted man named Eric Plummer, she refused to accept a protective detail and was furious with her partner for ordering one behind her back. Plummer, however, was not content to stalk Olivia, and forced her to shoot him when he took a hostage at gunpoint. Olivia has had occasion to use deadly force in the line of duty at least two other times.
Though Olivia has no blood relations left, the SVU has arranged itself as a surrogate, though this sometimes leads to more inter-office friction than normal. Olivia recently lost a member of her makeshift family when Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Cabot was assassinated on the order of Colombian drug lord Cesar Velez—or so she thought. Alex survived the attack and went into the Witness Protection Program after informing only Olivia and her partner, quite against federal policy.
Evaluation/Reason for Acceptance:
Perhaps the most emotionally dysfunctional of the Allstars, Benson is nevertheless a fine detective. Her loyalty, courage, and supreme dedication make up for whatever instability she faces personally. She will willingly give up her time to help a victim even after the perpetrator has been caught and, like her fellow detectives, works past the point of exhaustion to turn up a new lead or chase down a suspect. Her work constantly interferes with her social life, leaving her little time for adult relationships, yet she persists.
Olivia knows how to tangle with suspects who regularly have inches and pounds over her. As a woman, she has learned to act twice as tough and half as vulnerable as her male counterparts in order to maneuver rapists and murderers into telling her exactly what she wants to know. Yet, she also uses the considerable force of her compassion to comfort victims and their families during the worst time of their lives. At once a blend of fierce and gentle, Olivia Benson just as easily will draw her gun on a suspect as she will take a scared young girl under her wing.
