Olivia Benson
Title Detective
Affiliation New York City Police Department
Division Special Victims Unit
Precinct 16th Precinct
Current status Alive
First Appearance SVU: "Payback"
Played by Mariska Hargitay
Benson in 2008.

Olivia Benson is a detective in the Manhattan Special Victims Unit. She was partnered with Elliot Stabler for over 12 years.

Contents 1 Family 2 Personality 3 Skills and Abilities 4 Early Life 5 Relationships 5.1 Relationship with Elliot Stabler 6 Trivia 7 Aliases 8 Notes 9 References

FamilyEdit

Olivia Benson was born in 1968. She was the product of the 1967 rape of Serena Benson by a food salesman named Joseph Hollister. At the time of the rape, Serena had been working in the cafeteria of Columbia University. Olivia Benson has a half-brother, Simon Marsden. She didn't find out about her brother until they were both adults after she illegally ran her DNA through a kinship analysis. Serena died from injuries sustained in a fall when she was drunk in an episode of season 2, Taken.

PersonalityEdit

• Olivia is deeply empathetic with victims of sex crimes. ^{[citation needed]}
• As a result, she is often quick to believe victim's stories. ^{[citation needed]}
• Her partner Elliot Stabler is often more skeptical of victim's accounts, which often brings the two partners into conflict. ^{[citation needed]}
• Olivia's ability to empathize with victims is a tremendous asset, but there are times when it comes back to haunt her.
• In the ninth season she went undercover in a women's prison to find a rapist and was almost raped herself until Detective Odafin Tutuola, also undercover there as a guard of the facility, managed to save her just moments before the man, who was a fellow guard, abused her. Afterwards, Olivia developed a severe case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, but has been receiving counseling for the assault and has been seen dealing with it more constructively. While speaking to a victim of a separate rape, the victim asked her if she was better having dealt with her rapist, and Olivia told her that she was better but that she wouldn't ever forget what happened.

Skills and AbilitiesEdit

Benson speaks some Spanish, Italian, Russian, and French and is able to read the Miranda rights in two or three other languages. ^[1] She is a recreational mountain climber ^{[citation needed]}, and climbed on her own time with her co-worker Monique Jeffries. ^[2]

Early LifeEdit

In Philadelphia (2007) and Florida (2007) Olivia finds out about the man who raped her mother, and others. He knew about his daughter and kept track of her. He once tried to call her but got Serena instead. Olivia was a graduate of Siena College (Stalked).

In the pilot episode Payback, Olivia and Serena seemed to care about each other a great deal. Serena was worried about Olivia working in the Special Victims Unit. Then in Taken (2000) Serena dies as the result of a fall down the subway stairs across from a bar. Olivia says Serena was a drunk. In Abuse (2000) Olivia becomes involved with a child who was neglected by her parents that way Olivia felt neglected by her mother. In Wanderlust (1999) Olivia said she was in love with an older man and that she "couldn't have loved him more." In Intoxicated (2005) Olivia tells Casey Novak about an incident when she was 16. An older student of her mother asked her to marry him and when she told Serena that she was leaving, her mother who had been drinking flew into a rage and went after her with a broken bottle. Olivia kicked her mother into a wall and ran to Simone Bryce for help. After arguing with ADA Sonya Paxton about alcoholism and seeing her drunk in court, she was moved to leave flowers at her mother's grave.

RelationshipsEdit

Olivia has had atrocious luck when it has come to the area of dating and interpersonal relationships.

• She had a one night stand with, Brian Cassidy, her co-worker in the first season. She ended it the next day because he wanted something more.
• One boyfriend, Marshal Andy Eckerson, seemed to have a death-wish.
• Another man she dated, reporter Nick Ganzner, was seeing her to get information about a serial rapist she was looking for.
• A third, ADA Jeffrey York, later turned out to be gay, and was murdered by his colleague, Andy Abott. York had HIV at the time of his death, and thus Olivia had to be tested for the disease.
• More recently, Olivia dated a newspaper editor, Kurt Moss, but this fell apart when a tabloid writer at Moss' paper outed Lincoln Havers, a high-profile professional quarterback who happened to be a suspect in a murder that Benson was investigating. Naturally, Havers' attorney accused the NYPD of leaking Havers's sexuality to the press, and the NYPD in turn tried to scapegoat Benson for it. It was ultimately proven that Havers's agent was the real leak. Benson decided to break up with Moss, who had asked her to move in with him.
• She also had a brief relationship with her former case worker, Dean Porter. She tricked him with a brief date and kiss for a case. The case ended in him lying to her and breaking her heart. His last words were: "Our feelings don't matter." He then left her in an empty interrogating room with tears in her eyes.
• In Season 13, in Official Story, Detective Benson begins to develop feelings for new Executive Assistant District Attorney David Haden , and also doesn't mind that he is a father. At the end of the episode, she and him kiss each other good-night. They are recently going out.

Relationship with Elliot StablerEdit

Main Article: Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson

Benson's partner was Elliot Stabler (it is considered illegal for partners to enter into a relationship of that magnitude in New York City), Their relationship was not without friction, as the two sometimes argued over the cases they work on; Benson was quicker to side with the victims while Stabler was slower to assume that victims are telling the truth.

In "Burned" Stabler's wife, Kathy said she worried that Elliot preferred to be with Olivia rather than with herself and the kids. Combined with his long hours on the job and away from home, Stabler's work at SVU placed considerable strain on their marriage, eventually culminating in their separation; they later reconciled before the divorce became final.

Olivia has been asked throughout various episodes if she is attracted to, or has ever slept with Elliot. The answer is always in the negative.

TriviaEdit

• Olivia survived being cut in the neck trying to catch child killer Victor Paul Gitano.
• Olivia lives in apartment 4D. (although season 13 has seen it change to 4E).
• Olivia´s blood type is A positive.
• Olivia was in a sorority in her college years
• In the episode "Trophy", the daughter of a rape victim gives Olivia the parental rights to her son, Calvin Arliss, after killing her mother's rapist. A few episodes later, in "Rescue", these rights are revoked by Calvin's mother and he is sent to Child Services before finalizing his sending to Vermont.
• Olivia's shield number is 4015. ^{[citation needed]}
• Olivia carries a Glock 19 as her sidearm and also used a SIG-Sauer P228 during the episode "PTSD"

Aliases

• Olivia is often referred to as "Liv" by her squadmates instead of Olivia.
• Olivia used the undercover alias Rachel Martin to visit reporter Jackson Zane when he was imprisoned for writing an article about Michael Delpit's theft of several dozen vials of anthrax. She also called herself Rachel while she was having dinner with Mike Jergens. She was trying to observe him enough to prove that he was a rapist.
• Olivia used the alias Persephone James while investigating an environmental activist group undercover in Oregon for the FBI.
• In the episode "Undercover", she used the alias Katrina Ray Lewis when she went undercover to help bust a corrections officer suspected of raping and killing inmates.
• In "Risk" Olivia poses in a bar as a woman named Donna.
• She once used the name Beth.
• In "Hothouse", she posed as a woman named Claudia needing young girls for escorting men.

NotesEdit

• Olivia considers herself to be "best friends" with her partner Elliot Stabler

ReferencesEdit

1. ↑ Season 3, Prodigy
2. ↑ Season 1, Hysteria

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