No way! Not possible! You'd think this would be egregious behavior for officers (even fictional) that are charged with investigating sexual crimes. But apparently it's acceptable (on TV) because the potential victims are the criminals that have been charged with the episode's crime and are entering prison.
I can definitely understand the writers' impulse here: in the televised morality play, the viewer wants to see eye-for-an-eye justice. And with such heinous crimes being depicted, of course we want to see the "monster" suffer as much as possible. However, rape is NEVER OK. Not even in prison, not even when the victims are rapists themselves. And joking about prison rape erases a very serious and brutal problem with our nation's incarceration system. It's slightly more disturbing because these (fictional! I know!) detectives are charged with investigating all sexual crimes, including presumably those that take place in prison. The writers seem to have lost their way!
As the jokes would seem to allude, rape is a real threat for all inmates in the US - men, women, juveniles, etc. The National Prison Rape Elimination Commission released a report in 2009 detailing the epidemic. Although rates varied across facilities, overall about 5 percent of adults in jail reported sexual assault, and an even more shocking 20 percent of incarcerated youth reported that they had been the victim of non consensual sexual activity in the last year or since entering the facility. They also found that these problems were neither inevitable nor a natural part of incarceration, and that strong leadership and policies could essentially eliminate the problem. A Justice Department report this year states that 12% of juveniles inmates are raped - we are talking about children here.
SVU's writers do come back to this topic in later episodes, where the detectives' jokes catch up with them. And that's great: own your mistakes, acknowledge what went wrong, ensure they won't happen again, and move on! But that's not what happened. After the contrite episode, characters continue to make prison rape jokes! So, that's a media fail.
This is still, I think, pretty good television. However, a couple of reasons not to watch more than two SVU episodes per week (learn from my experience!)
- You will have terrible, terrible nightmares. This actually makes sense, but for some reason I didn't think of this and watched four episodes right before bedtime...
- You will never be able to look at LOST's Henry Ian Cusick with the same lovestruck eyes again. [See video below]
Other feminist bloggers on SVU:
- The writers bring primetime attention to a lot of issues feminists care about
- SVU sensationalizes rape and avoids the ugly truth that most rapists are not brought to justice
- The show victimizes female (but not male) leading characters to drive the plot forward
- It's complicated (my favorite)
I am a big fan of Law & Order SVU. It is important to keep in mind that it is fiction and lots of creative license must be used to keep a one hour show interesting. The rape jokes have always bothered me as well. I saw the episode where it caught up with them and the reality was not funny to them. They use the "jokes" to scare the bad guys into doing what they want them to do...usually confess. It is wrong to joke about rape ever. But, the show also must be appealing to people who believe in the "get what you deserve" mentality. Rape is always wrong. I watch SVU every week and reruns too, but always wonder if it makes people a little hysterical. I also wonder if sex offenders find it enjoyable to watch. I dont know...I struggle like everyone else, but I cant stop watching the show. I love Olivia! and wish I could look like her!
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