Reviewer Rating: 4.5/5.0
4.5
Law & Order: SVU has come a long way.
Early in the police process, officers often wonder whether the victim is a prostitute, and sex work cases are not taken seriously.
That changed a while ago, and now Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 7 shines a light on some of the systemic issues that keep these victims from getting the justice they deserve when they’re sexually assaulted .
Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 7 Shows Illegal Sex Work Prevents Justice
Warren doesn’t trust the police or the other women the SVU team has to talk to, and for good reason.
In addition, since sex work is illegal, these women believe that cooperating with the police means walking into a trap.
If they tried to help catch the rapist who hurt several of them, they would probably be arrested for selling their bodies, and Warren wasn’t too convinced that Benson wouldn’t find grounds to charge her with a crime if she came to the police station and told them she Everything known.
Laws prohibiting prostitution are outdated for a number of reasons.
In addition to liberals’ belief that someone willing to pay or provide sex has nothing to do with anyone else, there’s also the issue that many sex workers become victims before they even start working.
Many are trafficked and forced to have sex, raped by pimps, or manipulated into sex work in exchange for a roof over their head and food in their stomachs.
In Warren’s case, this was the second time she had been raped, or at least the second time Bruno had discovered a rape involving her.
She may have been abused at other times but did not report it.
She is more vulnerable than some of the other women working in sex work in the neighborhood because she is a lone wolf.
Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 7 delves into an interesting aspect of sex work, which is that the many women involved form a community who look out for each other, warn each other about problematic clients, and protect each other from violations by problematic customers.
Vulnerable people often learn to do this, realizing that no one will protect them, so they must protect each other.
Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s Warren’s fault that she was attacked.
After finishing what she was doing, she was supposed to be walking home safely, but the fact that she didn’t have a community watching her back didn’t help.
Fin and Bruno’s attempts to infiltrate the community lead to one of the funniest moments in Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 7
Communities that protect themselves distrust outsiders, especially the police.
No matter how many times Fen says they are not Vice, sex workers have no reason to believe them.
Deputies will lie and say they don’t care that you are a sex worker so they can lure you into a trap.
The two of them negotiating the intelligence deal was interesting. I especially loved the look Bruno gave Fin when Fin told Bruno to pay the ladies $250.
The elephant in the room: race
It would be irresponsible to ignore the fact that this is a community of black and Latinx sex workers.
Since I’m not a member of these communities I don’t want to speak for them, but I’m sure it has something to do with their distrust of the police and why they form their own communities to protect themselves.
Due to racial tensions between police and communities of color, these women may expect to be treated more harshly than white sex workers.
However, I’d love to hear from people who know more about this than me, so feel free to chime in with your opinions.
Did Carisi go too far in protecting Jesse?
I loved this episode with Carisi, even though I’m not sure half of what he did made sense.
Carisi returns to Benson’s office with the news that he found the pedophile who was eyeing Jesse in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 26 Episode 4 and learns that he was in Work in an elementary school.
Benson: This falls into the ethical gray area of predictive policing.
Carisi: Sooner or later this guy is going to offend someone.
Benson: But he hasn’t yet. We’re not vigilantes, Carisi.
BTW, I wish Benson would stop saying she’s too busy to work on a particular case or cause. We all know she’ll be okay with it, so cut the crap.
In Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 6, she did the same thing when Agent Clay first told her about the case in Rockland County, but acquiesced when she read the document.
What’s the point of this? She’s going to take the case. If not, she would have no reason to bring it up.
Cottle had no record of inappropriately touching children, so he wasn’t listed on the sex offender registry, and his background check didn’t turn up anything suspicious, which is why Carisi wanted to take the law into his own hands.
Benson is right, it’s a gray area.
Schools may be full of pedophiles who don’t act on their impulses, or haven’t done so yet; the only way to catch one is to offend them.
That’s why part of protecting children involves teaching them to be aware of danger signs and report them to an adult immediately.
No, children shouldn’t be solely responsible for their own safety — adults need to do their part, too.
However, messages can be preventative, and I’m surprised that when Carisi asked Benson what she would do if Noah was in school with a guy who was known to stare at little kids, Benson didn’t even think about it to this point.
It seems to me that Carisi is risking prosecution and no matter how right he is, there is something wrong with this guy.
He had no solid evidence that this man would harm anyone, and stalking him and reporting him to his employer so that he could be fired would seem to be construed as harassment.
Additionally, Carisi is so focused on this that he thinks his actual work is distracting him, which is a problem.
Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 7 took a strange turn when Cottle came to the SVU department to complain about Carisi’s behavior and eventually admitted that he needed help with his urges toward young children.
Carisi’s response was to try to find ways to arrest him preventatively, which was foolish. No charges will be made because the man did not or attempted to inappropriately touch a child.
He is not yet a child molester. He is a man with inappropriate impulses that scare him.
I don’t like pedophiles any more than Carisi, but isn’t asking for help from those who need it a precautionary measure?
Problems such as inappropriate sexual urges are complex and may have both physical and psychological foundations.
Child molestation is illegal and should remain that way, but having the urge to do so does not equate to doing it, just as Carisi’s desire to murder this man does not equate to him being a killer.
This guy is the rare pedophile who wants to know what to do to never hurt a child, and that should be encouraged, not punished.
Over to you, SVU fanatics.
What did you think of Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 7?
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Law & Order: SVU Season 26 airs Thursdays at 9/8c on NBC and Fridays on Peacock.
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