<P> Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (often abbreviated to Law & Order: SVU or just SVU) is an American police procedural, legal, crime drama television series set in New York City, where it is also primarily produced . In the style of the original Law & Order, episodes are often "ripped from the headlines" or loosely based on real crimes that have received media attention . Created by Dick Wolf, the series premiered on NBC on September 20, 1999, as the second series in Wolf's successful Law & Order franchise . Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has been nominated for and won numerous awards, including the 2006 Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for Mariska Hargitay, the first, and to date only, Emmy to be received by a regular on any Law & Order series . It is the current longest running scripted non-animated U.S. primetime TV series since the cancellation of the original Law & Order on May 24, 2010 and is the fourth - longest running scripted U.S. primetime TV series on a major broadcast network . </P> <P> Law & Order: Special Victims Unit originally centered almost exclusively on the detectives of the Special Victims Unit in a fictional version of the 16th Precinct of the New York City Police Department . As the series progressed, additional supporting characters were added as allies of the detectives in the New York County Manhattan District Attorney's office (known as advisers from the Sex Crimes Bureau) and the Medical Examiner's office . Certain episodes will go into detail about detectives' personal lives and how they may or may not tie into the crimes dealt with during the show . Typical episodes follow the detectives and their colleagues as they investigate and prosecute sexually based offenses, child abuse, and crimes against the elderly . The show starred Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler and Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson for its first twelve seasons until the former left the cast, unable to come to an agreement on his contract . </P> <P> On May 12, 2017, the series was renewed for a nineteenth season, which premiered on September 27, 2017 . As of March 21, 2018, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has aired 427 original episodes . </P> <P> The idea for Law & Order: Special . Victims Unit originated with the 1986 "preppie murder" case of Robert Chambers, who strangled Jennifer Levin, a woman he dated whom he later killed during what he claimed was consensual "rough sex" in Manhattan's Central Park . The crime inspired Dick Wolf to write the story for the season one episode of Law & Order titled "Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die". Even after writing the episode, however, the case continued to haunt Wolf, who wanted to go deeper into the psychology of crimes to examine the role of human sexuality . </P>

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