Law & Order: Special Victims Unit got a lot of flack for "Ridicule", a 2001 episode that dealt with sexual assault. Law & Order: SVU has certainly seen its fair share of controversy. The show, which premiered in 1999 and starred the incredibly wealthy Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni, really delved into topics of abuse, rape, and murder, more so than the original series which was mostly focused on court cases. One of the many little-known facts about Law & Order: SVU is that none of the episodes were actually meant to be controversial. Here's the truth about the episode that was seen as "the most controversial"...

They Didn't Set Out To Make "Ridicule" Controversial...

Believe it or not, Law & Order: SVU's showrunner, Neal Baer, didn't set out to make the 2001 episode of the show controversial. This seems hard to believe given the show's synopsis. As a refresher, the episode was about a woman who is found dead but is accused of being a rapist, alongside two of her powerful female friends. In the episode, the topic of whether or not a woman could be a rapist is discussed at length... It was pretty edgy stuff, but fascinating and important as the U.S. stats on rape are just staggering.

"We did things to explore issues that people weren’t talking about," Neal Baer said in a tell-all interview with Jezebel. "I was always looking for the ethical issue. I read an article about a guy in a neurology journal who became a pedophile at age 50 and that was weird. It turned out he had a tumor and when they removed the tumor, he lost his proclivity for child pornography. Then he started feeling it again and his tumor grew back, so this raised questions. I would assign that to one of the writers I thought would jibe with that kind of story. They would do an outline on their board, and they would pitch to me. It wasn’t just something general; every scene was on their whiteboards in their office."

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The writer of "Ridicule", Judith McCreary, was also interested in the darker stories. But she claims that she decided to write the episode as a response to something a consulting psychologist "said about sexual assault victims who suffer further indignity because they climaxed during their attacks."

Still, there were some arguments in the writer's room about whether or not the show was exploiting these stories for financial gain and the sake of art.

"I argued with my fellow writers, as well as sexual assault counselors, about male victims, especially male victims whose perps were female. I kept hearing words like 'rare' or 'non-existent.' I wondered how they could think women couldn’t be perps when studies have shown that not only can we be just as abhorrent as men, but more feral," writer Judith McCreary explained to Jezebel. "Also, it frustrated me the rape 1 statute categorically states penetration as the deciding act to first-degree rape. The penal code definitions can make you crazy, and the lack of effort to address the code can make you think no one actually cares about real justice or the law at all."

One of the ways the writers tried to present multiple sides of this sensitive topic was to give the characters of Benson and Stabler opposing view-points. This let them argue things out as the story was unfolding.

"[Creator] Dick Wolf’s edict when writing debates for characters was always that all parties had to be right," Judith continued. "When seen from that point of view, then their arguments were always great and pointed because they had equal weight."

According to Peter Starrett, who played the victim, the show was important because it flipped the perspective of the topic for men. Additionally, the topic of pleasure with the pain was dissected.

These were highly controversial topics but they were approached with...

A Great Deal Of Research

Like every episode of Law & Order, "Ridicule" was researched from all angles.

"We were encouraged to read the penal code, textbooks, and Westlaw for accuracy and verisimilitude," Judith explained. "I researched the DSM-3, 4 and 5 to research auto-erotic asphyxia among other mental diseases. I also consulted the Practical Guide to Sexual Homicide Investigation."

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"The primary goal of the writers was always to be accurate and to honor the victims of sexual assault and tell their stories in a way that was both legally and procedurally correct, but also psychologically accurate, because that’s what I did," writer Amanda Green stated. "I was working as a forensic mental health professional splitting my time between the Brooklyn district attorney’s office and the NYPD Brooklyn Sex Crimes Squad. One of the writers was coming to New York and she said, 'Can I take you to lunch?' and brought along Mariska Hargitay, who had a million questions. She brought me to the set, and Dick Wolf happened to be there that day. Mariska grabbed me by the arm and dragged me down the hall literally screaming, 'Dick, you have to meet the real-life Olivia Benson,' and it changed my life."

Even though a ton of research went into bringing this story to life, and the fact that experienced and knowledgable people were used in the creation of it, the fact remains that "Ridicule" remains one of SVU's most sensitive episodes.

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