Let’s take you around the Law and Order series as we bring you the Best Law and Order SVU Episodes of all time. Our collection of the best law and order episodes is based on ratings from viewers across the world.
Currently in its 21st season, best law and order SVU episodes: Special Victims Unit has evolved into one of the most well-known series in the crime-drama genre. With its first episode released on 13 September 1990, the series is produced and created by Richard Anthony Wolf who is an American television producer. The show is also noteworthy for being the longest-running primetime live-action TV series still on air.
Law and order feature special victims unit of NYPD detectives who solve cases established on actual crimes such as. sex crimes, child abuse, missing children, domestic violence, and crimes against the elderly but this may further include tackling homicides, drug trafficking, hate crimes, burglaries went awry, and even terrorists. Amidst all this, they try to lead normal lives.
Law and order feature Mariska Hargitay as Captain Olivia Benson, who is the commanding officer of the Special Victims Unit and formerly a lead detective, located in a fictionalized version of the New York City Police Department alongside her partner Eliot Stabler.
Law and order are is one of the most beloved fan-favorite shows in history but which episodes are the best? We’ve narrowed it down to the top 20 based on IMDb ratings and IMDb user votes.
These Are The 20 Best Law and Order SVU Episodes Ranked;
1. Season 7, Episode 3: 911
This episode titled 911 begins with a young girl’s call to 911 leading SVU detectives to discover she’s a child pornography victim. As Detective Benson struggles to find out the girl’s location she has to race the clock if she’s to save the young girl’s life. Absolutely one of the craziest law and order episodes you’d have to watch.
- IMDb user rating: 9.3/10
- IMDb user votes: 1,550
- Aired October 4, 2005
2. Season 6, Episode 6: Conscience
This episode features a 13-year-old boy who is discovered to not only have murdered his five-year-old neighbor but to have harmed numerous children at camp. Subsequently, he’s disclosed to be a sociopath, the 5-year-old’s father takes violent actions to settle the case while using professional skill to avoid retribution for retaliating.
- IMDb user rating: 9.2/10
- IMDb user votes: 998
- Aired November 9, 2004
3. Season 5, Episode 4: Loss
The focus is on Assistant District Attorney Cabot. Novak the incumbent District Attorney, Cabot, and the detectives are entangled in a tense issue surrounding covert agents and Colombian drug dealers. They must take down the entire drug ring before the dealers get to them.
- IMDb user rating: 9.2/10
- IMDb user votes: 932
- Aired October 14, 2003
4. Season 6, Episode 4 – Scavenger
Likely inspired by real-life serial killers, an active serial killer drop hints throughout the city for the team to find in order to stop him from taking his next victim. Instead of pursuing their clues after the evidence, the team was led on a scavenger hunt by the criminal.
- IMDb user rating: 9.2/10
- IMDb user votes: 912
- Aired October 19, 2004
5. Season 4, Episode 20 – Dominance
This episode begins with the detectives closing in on a case of sexual assault and gruesome quadruple murder that occurred after an engagement party. Detectives investigate for a suspect seeking revenge through the domination of his victims.
- IMDb user rating: 9.2/10
- IMDb user votes: 908
- Released April 4, 2003
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6. Season 9 Episode 17: Authority
A man test people’s responses to authority by making them commit heinous acts. He is accused of imitating a police officer over a telephone and instructing a fast-food manager to sexually molest an employee is found not guilty and resulting in him becoming a vocal zealot asking others to disobey authority figures.
- IMDb user rating: 9.1/10
- IMDb user votes: 1,354
- Aired April 29, 2008
7. Season 9, Episode 15: Undercover
When the rape kit of a teenage girl who was brutally molested by a correction officer goes missing, Benson and Tutuola risks their safety to go deep undercover and investigate the corrections officers at the facility.
- IMDb user rating: 9.1/10
- IMDb user votes: 1,085
- Aired April 15, 2008.
8. Season 12, Episode 3: Behave
Vicki Sayers ends up in the hospital after being raped and beaten repeatedly. Benson and Stabler help Sayers face up to her attacker. The investigation of the case steers Benson to Los Angeles, where she meets a Skeet Ulrich who possesses information that could help the victim get justice. Detectives Benson and Stabler learn that she’s been beaten and raped by the same attacker since she was 16 years old.
- IMDb user rating: 9.1/10
- IMDb user votes: 1,048
- Aired September 29, 2010
9. Season 10, Episode 22: Zebras
Special Victims Unit is placed on a high alert when a tourist is murdered in Central Park. A mistake made by Crime Scene Unit tech Dale Stuckey makes the suspect escape leading to more killings, placing more people at risk. Munch has to race against time to prevent another killing.
- IMDb user rating: 9.1/10
- IMDb user votes: 989
- Aired June 2, 2009
10. Season 9, Episode 1: Alternate
Janis is a woman with multiple personalities and is searching for her missing child. Is she responsible for the death of her child? As her mental illness worsens, along with multiple deaths happening in her family, Stabler and Benson investigate the case, discovering that Janis may have been abused as a child, resulting in her fractured psyche.
- IMDb user rating: 9.1/10
- IMDb user votes: 977
- Aired September 25, 2007
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11. Season 6, Episode 7: Charisma
Special Victims Unit is asked by a hospital to investigate the life of Melanie Cramer a pregnant 12-year-old girl with pregnancy complications. Benson finds out that the girl has a husband, who is the head of a religious cult, and has impregnated numerous amount of his followers. A career con artist, forger, and thief veers to homicide and serial pedophilia to populate his religious cult and obtain a multi-million dollar trust fund.
The detectives attempt to reach one of the affected women so as to protect Cramer and the remaining children who reside within the cult.
- IMDb user rating: 9.1/10
- IMDb user votes: 913
- Aired November 16, 2004
12. Season 11, Episode 12: Shadow
Benson and Stabler are saddled with the task of finding the murderers of a wealthy couple. Their daughter is being stalked by Special Frauds detective Naveen Andrews who believes she had a hand in her parents’ murder.
- IMDb user rating: 9.1/10
- IMDb user votes: 900
- Aired January 13, 2010
13. Season 9, Episode 12: Signature
Benson and Lake recruit the help of an FBI agent, Lauren Cooper in the hunt for a serial killer known as the Woodsman who has claimed the lives of more than 20 women only to discover that he too has been killed. The tragic ordeal turns into a case against a vigilante and as even unfolds Cooper’s link to Woodsman is revealed.
- IMDb user rating: 9.1/10
- IMDb user votes: 895
- Aired January 8, 2008
14. Season 17, Episode 23: Heartfelt Passages
The suit against corrections officer Gary Munson goes on. His wife originally didn’t believe he was capable of such dreadful crimes but had a change of mind after getting tested for STDs. Gary Munson and his union threaten the lives of Barba.
- IMDb user rating: 9.1/10
- IMDb user votes: 886
- Aired May 25, 2016
15. Season 7, Episode 19 – Fault
Benson and Stabler go on a manhunt when Victor Paul Gitano, a just discharged sex offender, kidnaps two children after murdering the other members of their family. The fate of the children’s lives, as well as the professional relationship between Benson and Stabler, hangs in the balance.
- IMDb user rating: 9.1/10
- IMDb user votes: 867
- Aired April 4, 2006
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16. Season 11, Episode 5: Hardwired
Cory’s strange behavior leads his mother, Eva Banks to discover that the child was sexually abused by his stepfather. The case seems to be simple but Cory’s stepfather complicates things when he offers to deliver the pedophile advocacy faction he is a part of so as to avoid the charges.
- IMDb user rating: 9.1/10
- IMDb user votes: 788
- Aired October 21, 2009.
17. Season 11, Episode 9: Perverted
Benson is down with flu and is being framed for the death of a biker gang member due to the presence of incriminating DNA evidence pointing to Benson. SVU detectives try to substantiate her integrity and find out why she’s being implicated. Benson must deal with not only the legal system by also internal suspicions that she and Stabler have become dirty cops. Munch and Fin investigate the murder, while Stabler battles to substantiate his partner’s integrity. The missing link to both Vandyne’s murder and Benson’s involvement must be found.
- IMDb user rating: 9.1/10
- IMDb user votes: 772
- Aired November 18, 2009.
18. Season 10, Episode 21: Liberties
In this episode, Detective Stabler receives a strange request from a judge to interview a death-row serial killer he just sent to prison and to find the judge’s long-lost son, who was abducted 30 years ago. Both cases end up being connected.
- IMDb user rating: 9.1/10
- IMDb user votes: 737
- Aired May 19, 2009
19. Season 6, Episode 12 – Identity
An 80-year-old man is charged with the murder of an unemployed executive who stole his identity and made him lose his home. Detectives Lennie Briscoe and Ed Green are made to investigate the murder of a man called Lonnie Jackson.
- IMDb user rating: 9.0
- IMDb user votes: 979
- Aired January 18, 2005
20. Season 8, Episode 22: Screwed
Tensions arise between the detectives when a man on trial for raping and murdering a mother and child digs up dirt on Stabler, Benson, Tutuola, Cragen, and Casey Novak to use as his justification. This is one of my Best Law and Order SVU Episodes ever.
- IMDb user rating: 9.0
- IMDb user votes: 934
- Aired 22 May 2007
Choosing the best law and order SVU episodes Special Victims Unit is a tough call, considering the fact that there are so many outstanding episodes of this incredible drama but there’s no doubt, the above will surely tickle your fancy. So, that has been our best law and order SVU episodes, feel free to use the comment box for your opinion and views.