Release Date

Premiered

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 3 released on September 28, 2001.

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Episodes

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S03E01 Aired September 28, 2001

Repression

After therapy uncovers repressed memories of abuse and fearing her seven-year-old sister is currently being molested, an eighteen-year-old girl brings charges of rape against her father who winds up murdered when those charges are dismissed.

S03E02 Aired October 05, 2001

Wrath

The detectives investigate three murders that seemingly have with no connection to each other, but each one has ties to Benson's previous cases and the detectives worry that Benson is the intended target.

S03E03 Aired October 12, 2001

Stolen

The kidnapping of an infant at a grocery store leads to a scheme of snatching and selling babies for adoption which brings back a case from twelve years ago that involved Captain Cragen and his partner, the late Max Greevey.

S03E04 Aired October 19, 2001

Rooftop

When an HIV-positive male with a record of assaulting underage girls is discovered in a sexual clincher with a young woman on a rooftop, the detectives are determined to put him back inside. After a series of rapes and murders that cannot be traced to him, though, they begin to wonder if they've been looking the wrong way.

S03E05 Aired October 26, 2001

Tangled

When arriving party guests find a prominent doctor murdered and his wife raped, the investigation starts with his estranged son and a former patient, then moves to his mistress and her neighbor and the realization that the wife was the intended victim.

S03E06 Aired November 02, 2001

Redemption

Stabler is teamed up with John 'Hawk' Hawkins to capture a serial rapist/murderer whom Hawk originally convicted years earlier. The more investigation done, the more unlikely it becomes that the convicted culprit was innnocent. Hawk is then at a crossroads about his life and his prestige as an officer.

S03E07 Aired November 09, 2001

Sacrifice

A shooting outside of a gay bar leads the detectives to the victim's family, which includes a bitter feud with his parents, and his wife's involvement in pornographic movies.

S03E08 Aired November 16, 2001

Inheritance

The search for a serial rapist leads to a suspect who was himself a product of rape, and whose father was convicted of that crime. The young man's attorney blames his genetics as the reason for his actions.

S03E09 Aired November 23, 2001

Care

The battered body of a five-year-old girl in foster care is discovered, and suspicion soon turns to the girl's foster brother, who is into violent video games and doesn't seem quite right in the head. The investigation turns to the girl's biological mother as well as to her foster mother and grandmother as the team tries to figure out who is the real guilty party, and who is only a red herring.

S03E10 Aired December 14, 2001

Ridicule

What appears as an accidental death leads to a case involving a male stripper who claims that the deceased was one of three women who raped him at a bachelorette party.

S03E11 Aired January 04, 2002

Monogamy

The wife of a psychiatrist, seven months pregnant, is found unconscious and bleeding in a parking garage with her fetus missing. The attending paramedic reports to Benson that the victim "sustained massive abdominal trauma" that looks "like an emergency C-section". The investigation leads to infedility and uncertainty as to the paternity, adding fuel to the fire of an already aggitated Stabler.

S03E12 Aired January 11, 2002

Protection

A 6-year-old boy wounded in a shooting is brought to the hospital ER but abandonded by the brother who reported it and their mother. The case leads the detectives to a woman who is on the run for her abusive lover, a drug dealer whom she saw kill a rival.

S03E13 Aired January 18, 2002

Prodigy

When an animal rights activist is found decapitated in the park, Benson and Stabler must determine which of their two main suspects -- a sociopathic teenager and a recently paroled rapist -- is responsible for the murder.

S03E14 Aired January 25, 2002

Counterfeit

A woman is found raped and killed by her car. Benson and Tutuola try to figure out why there were drugs in the victim's trunk but then find that a similar rape was committed. This victim says that a police officer raped her after pulling her over for a supposed driving violation. The D.A. now has to zero in on the corrupt cop.

S03E15 Aired February 01, 2002

Execution

As an inmate gets closer and closer to his death penalty sentence, Stabler struggles to find out whether that man was the perpetrator of a different crime with an unidentified murderer. Dr. Huang assists Stabler but the investigation goes haywire to mixed results.

S03E16 Aired March 01, 2002

Popular

Stabler's wife tells him that her friend (a nurse) treated a young girl for rape by a teacher. Despite being advised not to find out further details, Stabler, with help from Benson, crack open the case to disturbing details. The girl had been part of a club in which sexual favors were given for drugs in a group of teenagers.

S03E17 Aired March 08, 2002

Surveillance

The sexual assault of a cellist leads the detectives to a stalking case where the suspect uses surveillance equipment.

S03E18 Aired March 29, 2002

Guilt

When A.D.A. Cabot is faced with a reluctant witness in a child molestation case, she goes above and beyond the normal scope of duty in her search for evidence to convict the serial abuser. But her passion supercedes her compliance with the law as she misrepresents herself to Benson and Stabler to bring them into an illegal search of the traumatised boy's home -- jeopardising not only her case, but the careers of all involved. SVU Bureau Chief Elizabeth Donnelly is faced with the frustrating task of bringing Cabot in line to preserve the integrity of the Special Victims Unit.

S03E19 Aired April 05, 2002

Justice

In investigating the sexual assault of a 16-year-old, it's discovered that the victim is the rebellious stepdaughter of a judge.

S03E20 Aired April 26, 2002

Greed

Investigating the assault of the wife of a restaurateur during a robbery, leads the detectives to a similar assault, and to a locksmith.

S03E21 Aired May 03, 2002

Denial

When a heroin junkie is found raped, Tutuola takes an interest in Claire, but he's not the only one. When they find a finger in her purse, it opens a can of worms that spans back thirteen years, to when a teenaged Claire witnessed her mother beating her baby sister Lisa to death, and even further back, when Claire's grandmother, Rose, turns Grace in for the murder of her first-born son, Anthony, years before Claire was born.

S03E22 Aired May 10, 2002

Competence

The investigation into the rape and impregnation of a young girl with Down's Syndrome uncovers a serial rapist who preys on handicapped young girls under the guise of being their benefactor.

S03E23 Aired May 17, 2002

Silence

A murder in a church leads Benson and Stabler to an alleged cover-up involving sexual abuse by a priest.