How 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit' Actress Mariska Hargitay Helped Reopen 11,000 Unsolved Rape Investigations

Actress Mariska Hargitay, who plays Olivia Benson in the series “Law "Special Victims Unit” has helped the justice system investigate 11,000 rape cases.

In the series “New York, Special Victims Unit”, Olivia Benson is a police captain who works in a department dedicated to sex crimes and the reception of victims. The one who plays her, Mariska Hargitay, also acts for victims in real life. The actress financially helped the justice system to analyze 11,000 unprocessed rape kits. This is what a Dateline NBC journalist revealed during the showToday.

Financial assistance

In the United States, emergency kits are used by police departments to collect bodily fluids from victims of sexual assault. Their purpose is to be able to have a DNA trace and thus identify an aggressor. Kym Worthy, the district attorney for Wayne County, Michigan, discovered as many as 11,000 untested rape kits in an evidence room in Detroit.

Mariska Hargitay, sensitive to sexual assault, decided to provide financial support to the Michigan prosecutor's office. Thus, Kym Worthy was able to start processing these millions of samples that had not been processed until now.

Thanks to the processing, many cases have been solved and no less than 22 serial rapists have been apprehended. But it doesn't stop in Detroit and has inspired other American states.

“The work of Worthy and Hargitay has had a ripple effect across the country, triggering changes in police departments and prosecutors' offices,”, the American journalist said. Note that this operation is very expensive and that without the help of the actress, the 11,000 emergency kits would have remained locked in this room of evidence.

“A man raped me in his thirties”

Supporting victims is an important fight for Mariska Hargitay. She created Joyful Heart, a foundation that aims to “support survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse”, notes the Huffington Post.

Earlier this year, after many years of keeping quiet, she decided to speak out.  “A man raped me in my 30s", the actress said. The latter went on to say that this “was not sexual at all”. “It was domination and control”, she wrote.

The one who plays the role of Olivia Benson, is tasked with her team to investigate crimes of a sexual nature in the American series. But fiction has become reality. Mariska Hargitay testifies to the violence of the attack and confides the fear felt. “He grabbed me by the arms, slammed me to the ground. I was afraid he was going to get physically violent,”, she described.

“Tell someone you're a cancer survivor and you'll be celebrated. I want the same response for sexual assault survivors,”, Mariska Hargitay said last January.