Children in Chains: On the Productive and Exploitative Tendencies of Representation in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

It also depicts other crimes including cases with children, the elderly, and trafficking victims. This show is not without its critics, however. Many in the academic community point to the sexually-charged content as both the reason for SVU’s success and also the site of its controversy. Scholar of media culture and author Cynthia Chris states, “No amount of stolid narrative closure...could temper the graphic fear contained in” a particularly harrowing 2008 episode. “There was something sticky and toxic at work in the show,” Chris continues, “and I could not overlook it ever again” (62). Scholars like Chris find themselves questioning SVU’s graphic content, coming to the same conclusion: “we don’t really know why so many are drawn to these entertainments, nor to what effect. We don’t even have a firm grasp on the scope and received meanings of violence contained within popular entertainment products” (62). Many others focus on the implications this show has for questions of gender and race in the media. SVU hangs on a point of tension within the critical discourse thanks to the diversity—and lack thereof—in the cast, which has yet to receive much explicit attention. The show features many elements characteristic of the white savior trope, since only one Children in Chains: On the Productive and Exploitative Tendencies of Representation in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit