Mariska Hargitay on ‘Law & Order: SVU’ Premiere That Seemed to Echo the Cornell Case

The season premiere of Law and Order: SVU on Oct. 9 seemed eerily prescient given the recent headlines coming out of Cornell University.

However, as Mariska Hargitay notes, the story was written far ahead of the current events, and instead is meant to speak to the prevalence of rape victims struggling to find justice.

“This was written and shot in July, well before the Cornell story hit national headlines in September,” Hargitay shared with The Hollywood Reporter. “That said, it does speak to how common these stories are. Every 68 seconds someone in the U.S. is sexually assaulted. All too often these assaults are perpetrated on people who are intoxicated. So few of these survivors get the justice they seek due to the system breaking down, especially when they need it the most.”

In the episode, titled “Volition,” a young woman named Emily winds up in the hospital after ending up on the subway late at night, disoriented and pleading for help. Once at the hospital, Emily tells Capt. Olivia Benson (Hargitay) that she believes three men raped her after she passed out from consuming too much alcohol. Emily knew two of the three men and went back to one of their homes for drinks after trivia. However, Emily struggles to remember exact details of the night, including whether she verbally said “no.”

Eventually, the detectives find the three men and bring them to trial. However, they acknowledge that it will be a tough case to win, given the victim’s lack of memory around the incident, as well as a New York state law that says that overly intoxicated people can still give consent if they willingly chose to drink. This was one of the episode’s key moments for Hargitay.

“I’ve always wanted to highlight New York’s voluntary intoxication loophole, which has been an issue that I have been aware of for many years through my work at Joyful Heart [Hargitay’s foundation]. When I learned about the loophole, I wanted to raise awareness to hopefully close it here and throughout the country. In fact, there are 19 states — including New York — that have this loophole, which I find appalling,” Hargitay said.

The first trial ends in a mistrial, with Emily being torn apart on the stand about how much she drank and her lack of memory around the event. Given her experience, Emily declines to participate in another trial.

Benson then goes to the bar with jury consultant Gwen Sharpe (J.Smith-Cameron) and bemoans the experience that Emily and many rape victims face, saying, “Nothing has changed. We’re 30 years in, and a jury gets to decide that if a woman drinks too much, she deserves to be raped. That is the problem.” This conversation spoke to both the issues her character has faced across 28 seasons, as well as the real world issue.

“This particular case highlights how — as much as it feels like we’ve come a long way with issues of sex, consent, gender — in some ways we’re still stuck in the past, still judging women differently if they drink, blaming them in part for their own assault. It’s not far from asking “what was she wearing/why was her skirt so short.” So it’s Benson feeling that, feeling a futility sometimes,” Hargitay said.

“At Joyful Heart, I spend time listening to people who work in the field. Victim advocates, SANE (Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner) nurses, lawyers, law enforcement and judges all say the same thing: the toll that this work takes on them can be profound. Burnout is real. We also know that many professionals are survivors themselves and their trauma becomes compounded by the secondary trauma they experience every day. That scene really tried to speak to that reality: that people do these critical jobs for years, often decades, and the needle rarely moves. However, they continue, because of their dedication to make survivors’ voices heard,” Hargitay continued.

In the episode, Sharpe encourages Benson to “fight differently,” leading Benson to arrest the mother of one of the alleged perpetrators on somewhat trumped-up charges. In exchange for a lesser charge and freeing his mother, the perpetrator agrees to testify against the other two men, which ultimately leads to rape convictions for the two.

Hargitay, who was one of several celebrities who spoke out about the seven men accused of sexually assaulting a woman at Cornell, said while this episode was not based directly on that case, she hopes it will help further change for victims.

“It’s my deep hope that as much can be learned from these cases as possible and most of all that it will yield positive and lasting change,” she said.