As it turns out, Law & Order: SUV star Mariska Hargitay has helped authorities solve more than 11,000 cases of sexual harassment.
Hargitay, 60, is known for her portrayal of Captain Olivia Benson, a detective in the fictional New York Police Department’s Special Victims Unit, in the hit television series.
Throughout the program, Benson and her team investigate extremely sensitive and heinous crimes, often involving sexual assault or harassment.
The actress has now helped investigators in Michigan identify 22 “serial rapists” by funding District Attorney Kym Worthy’s mission to sift through 11,000 untested rape kits stored in a police evidence room, the Today Show reported.
This comes after Hargitay revealed earlier this year that she was raped by a boyfriend in her 30s. She said she “trivialized” the rape over the years before coming to the point of “recognition.”
Mariska Hargitay, pictured here filming Law & Order: SUV on August 5, has helped authorities investigate more than 11,000 cases of sexual harassment
She helped investigators in Wayne County, Michigan, identify 22 “serial rapists” by funding District Attorney Kym Worthy’s (pictured in 2015) mission to examine 11,000 untested rape kits lying in a police evidence room.
When Hargitay learned of the horrifying backlog of untested rape kits in Wayne County, she “made it her mission to get all the kits tested.”
Through her Joyful Heart Foundation—which Hargitay founded in 2004 to support survivors’ healing and change society’s response to sexual assault—she launched the End the Backlog program.
The program aims to end “injustice” by “identifying jurisdictions with backlogs in rape kit production” and helping “develop and implement survivor-centered reforms.”
The charity helped Wayne County raise enough money to test 11,000 kits, which journalist Andrea Canning said created a “ripple effect across the country.”
“It’s causing change everywhere – in police departments and prosecutors,” Canning told the Today Show.
“So hats off to Kym Worthy… She deserves the highest praise for this. Thousands of cases have been solved. Among these kits they found 22 serial rapists.”
Beginning of the year The actress from “Law & Order: SVU”shared for the first time details of the horrific attack she suffered decades ago in a heartbreaking firsthand essay for People.
She wrote: “A man raped me in my thirties. It wasn’t sexual at all. It was dominance and control. Overwhelming control. He was a friend. Then he wasn’t.”
Hargitay, who was photographed filming the television show on August 5, revealed earlier this year that she was raped by a boyfriend in her 30s.
Mariska Hargitay said she “trivialized” the rape over the years before coming to a “recognition and realization”: “My husband Peter (Hermann) remembers me saying, ‘I mean, it wasn’t rape.’ Then things started to change in me (Image: October with Hermann)
“I tried everything I could think of to get out of there. I tried to joke, be charming, set boundaries, be reasonable, say no. He grabbed my arms and held me tight. I was terrified. I didn’t want it to escalate into violence. I know now that it was already sexual violence, but I was afraid he would become physically violent.
The star said she went into “freeze mode” after the attack because she couldn’t process what had happened.
She said: “So I cut it out. I removed it from my narrative. I have so much compassion now for the part of me that made that decision, because that part got me through it. It never happened. Now I honor that part: I did what I had to do to survive.”
Hargitay founded the Joyful Heart Foundation in 2004, whose goal is to support survivors’ healing and change society’s response to sexual assault. She said the foundation has enabled her to begin healing.
She wrote: “I think I also needed to see what healing could look like. I look back at speeches where I said, ‘I am not a survivor,'” she writes.
“I did not lie. That was not my opinion of myself.”
Hargitay said she “downplayed” the rape over the years before coming to a “recognition and realization”: “My husband Peter (Hermann) remembers me saying, ‘I mean, it wasn’t rape.’ Then things started to change in me, and I started talking about it more seriously with the people closest to me.”
The “Law & Order: SVU” actress (pictured in the series in 2022) said in a heartbreaking first-hand essay that she “checked out of her body” during the horrific attack – she can be seen in the series in 2002 at the age of 38
In September this year she will celebrate the 25th anniversary of her hit series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (picture)
She said she now wants “an acknowledgement and an apology” from her attacker and wrote: “When it comes to justice, it is important to know that it can look different for each victim. For my part, I want an acknowledgement and an apology. I am sorry for what I did to you. I raped you. I have no excuse.”
“It’s a painful part of my story. It was a horrific experience. But it doesn’t come anywhere close to defining me, in the way that no other part of my story defines me.
Next month, Hargitay will celebrate the 25th anniversary of her hit series “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”
For the first decade, the actress played second fiddle on the show. From 1999 to 2011, Christopher Meloni was the show’s main actor as Elliot Stabler, with Mariska supporting him as Olivia Benson.
“I was the second detective alongside Elliot Stabler. He was the male lead and had a little more experience, and I was trying to catch up,” she recalls.
However, Christopher Meloni left the show in 2011 and Hargitay became the main character of the show.
In May, Hargitay’s real life resembled that of her character when a lost child wandered onto the set of “SVU,” mistaking the actress for a police officer and asking for her help.
Like Benson, the actress was quick to comfort the frightened little girl and successfully helped her reunite with her mother. She then consoled the mother-daughter duo before returning to work.
Mariska Hargitay also took action in May of this year to reunite a lost child with his mother after he was mistaken for a police officer on duty.
“This little angel was in need and we bonded and I could see that,” Hargitay told Entertainment Tonight about the incident. “So I did what any mother on the planet would do.”
Previously, Hargitay talked about how to adopt Olivia Benson’s mindset in emergency situations.
“There’s this thing: WWOBD, ‘What would Olivia Benson do?’ The fans always talked about it and one day it hit me. I also have these moments where I kind of empathize with her,” she told People in January.
She continued, “When there’s a crisis, I just take the lead and I’m strong and fearless. It’s kind of the perfect feminist story.”
