Prosecutor Casey Novak\u2019s job was simple \u2014 convict bad guys that New York City Police Department detectives had arrested and give rape victims some semblance of justice. And on more than 100 hour-long episodes of \u201cLaw & Order: Special Victims Unit,\u201d she almost always got it done.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Diane Neal, the actress who played Novak for seven seasons on the TV crime drama, thought that\u2019s how it worked in real life. Police worked with victims to catch scumbags, rarely arrested the wrong guy and almost never left a case unsolved. Then, prosecutors sent the criminals to prison.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cI\u2019m embarrassed to admit, I used to think the way it worked on the show was like real life,\u201d Neal wrote on Twitter. \u201cThen I found out the hard way I was wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Neal was reacting to the latest episode<\/a> of HBO\u2019s \u201cLast Week Tonight,\u201d in which host John Oliver spent nearly 30 minutes blasting the \u201cLaw & Order\u201d franchise for having \u201cpropagandized\u201d police and prosecutors for more than 30 years. More than 1,200 episodes of \u201cLaw & Order\u201d and its numerous spinoffs have created a distorted view of how the American criminal justice system works \u2014 or doesn\u2019t, Oliver told viewers in a clip that had racked up more than 2.8 million YouTube views by early Wednesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Representatives for Neal and \u201cLaw & Order\u201d creator Dick Wolf did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Over the course of dozens of seasons and hundreds of episodes, the \u201cLaw & Order\u201d universe has delivered a core thesis to its viewers, Oliver said: \u201cThe cops deeply care about getting justice for victims, and their gut instincts mean that they almost always get the job done in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n That\u2019s not true. The vast majority of crimes reported to police in the United States go unsolved, although those include lower-profile property crimes like burglary and theft, according to a 2020 Pew Research Center report<\/a>. But even when it comes to crimes dealing with the highest stakes \u2014 violent crime \u2014 law enforcement officials successfully clear less than half of the cases that are reported.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The dogged endurance of \u2018Law & Order\u2019<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The criminal justice system\u2019s track record with rape is particularly bad. Less than a third of sexual assaults are reported to law enforcement, according to the nonprofit advocacy group RAINN<\/a>, or the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network. About 16 percent of those reports lead to an arrest, while 9 percent result in a felony conviction.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But viewers watching \u201cSVU\u201d wouldn\u2019t know about low conviction rates or reports of understaffed special victims units<\/a>. The show offers up a narrative with a consistent message: that the system holds bad people accountable, Oliver said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n During the segment, Oliver played one clip of Wolf, the \u201cLaw & Order\u201d creator, in which he proclaimed himself \u201cunabashedly pro-law enforcement\u201d and then another in which Wolf called his shows \u201cprobably the best recruiting poster that you could have for being a New York City cop.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Oliver agreed but noted that \u201ca recruiting poster is always going to be a propagandized hero-washed version of the truth, a truth which is more often than not very ugly.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n That doesn\u2019t mean people can\u2019t watch it, Oliver added, but viewers should keep in mind they\u2019re watching fiction. \u201cIt is important to remember just how far it is from representing anything resembling reality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Those misconceptions can have real world impacts. Researchers found that \u201cviewers of crime dramas are more likely to believe the police are successful at lowering crime, use force only when necessary, and that misconduct does not typically lead to false confessions,\u201d according to a 2015 study<\/a> in Criminal Justice and Behavior titled \u201cThe Role of Entertainment Media in Perceptions of Police Use of Force,\u201d which Oliver cited on his program.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Those real world impacts cut the other way, too, said Mariska Hargitay, the \u201cSVU\u201d actress who plays Olivia Benson, the tough but empathetic detective at the heart of the show. In a 2020 interview<\/a>, Hargitay said fans have told her that, because of \u201cSVU,\u201d they knew what to do when they were raped, made sure to report it and had a rape kit done \u2014 \u201cand had faith in that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cMost of all they didn\u2019t feel alone anymore,\u201d Hargitay said, as her voice broke. \u201cAnd to me, when I started hearing those stories is when I knew that it wasn\u2019t just a TV show anymore.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt was so much more,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Neal, the actress who played the hard-charging sex crimes prosecutor, said she learned \u201cthe hard way\u201d that the criminal justice system she helped create on-screen is a fantasy, although she didn\u2019t elaborate about how in her tweet<\/a>. She asked people to tell her if \u201cSVU\u201d had given \u201cvictims who report sex crimes in real life unrealistic expectations that the cops will care or crimes will be solved.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A woman replied that when she reported her case to police, she didn\u2019t feel believed and that no one followed up on her case. \u201cWhen I called to check on my case years later instead of being transferred to a detective I was hung up on,\u201d she added. It\u2019s been nine years since she reported what happened to police, \u201cand I still have no information on my case.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Neal thanked her for sharing and agreed that there would be \u201ca LOT more justice\u201d if Olivia Benson were a real detective.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n