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What’s more controversial than a hip-hop star beating his pop-star girlfriend so badly she can’t sing at their Grammy gig that night? SVU portraying a barely-fictionalized version of their relationship, which ends with the guy killing the girl.

Last night’s Law & Order: SVU took Chris Brown and Rihanna’s tumultuous relationship to its most extreme conclusion: with a thinly-veiled Brown beating a thinly-veiled Rihanna to death. After the episode, the Internet lit up with comments, many of them blasting the show for killing the singer in effigy.

But SVU was right to do it.

If anyone is the face of domestic violence in America, it’s Rihanna. And not just because of her personal life: the beating, her decision to drop charges, her high-profile reconciliation with Brown (announced through playful bedroom pics in their Twitter feeds).

Her career took off because she sang about the experience. Eighteen months after the attack, she and Eminem collaborated on the chart-busting single, “Love the Way You Lie,” in which a healed and sparkly Rihanna sings this catchy tune:

Just gonna stand there and watch me burn
That’s all right, because I like the way it hurts

The music video features actors so attractive and domestic violence so sensuous, I practically wanted Eminem to start hitting me by the time it faded to black.

Clearly, this is not how domestic violence looks in real life. For twelve years, I was a federal prosecutor in D.C., where I specialized in sex crimes and domestic violence. It is an ugly thing, filled with pain and shame, broken bones and broken promises, and terrified children at risk of becoming terrorizing monsters themselves.

Although a generation of girls may look at Rihanna and think an abusive boyfriend gets you diamonds and record deals, in real life it leads to over 18 million mental health care visits and almost eight million missed days of work each year.

SVU’s ending was dramatic – but based on grimly real statistics. Every day, three women in America die as a result of domestic violence. In 70 to 80% of these homicides, the man physically abused the woman before the murder.

As a prosecutor, I saw over and over the interaction that SVU authentically portrayed last night. I would meet a woman the day of her attack. She would be bloody and bruised and ready to send her assailant to jail. Three months later, on the day of trial, she would be cuddling with her abuser in the back of the courtroom. “Please, Ms. Leotta,” she would say. “I don’t want him to go to jail. I love him. Drop the charges.” Indeed, 80% of domestic violence victims are back with their abusers by the time of trial and want the charges dropped.

This was something that haunted me every day, and kept me working late every night. I thought about this issue so often, it became my first book, Law of Attraction, a novel about a DV homicide.

I had to weigh the power of her choice against the likelihood that he would kill her. My job was homicide prevention. Because domestic violence doesn’t go away quietly; it spirals upwards, with each incident getting more violent and brutal. I saw too many cases where a victim refused to testify – and was killed by the man she was trying to protect.

One in four American women will experience domestic abuse in her lifetime. Each one of those women will decide whether to testify against her abuser. And in making her decision, each will consider various pop culture images. On one hand will be glamorous Rihanna, dancing in black leather shorts while crooning about how good the pain feels. On the other will be SVU’s image of a similar woman’s death at the hands of the man who brought that pain. It’s not pretty. But it’s real.

A cautionary tale was in order. Kudos to SVU for providing it.

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This was a strong episode blending serious, cutting-edge issues like gay-on-gay hate crimes with the sparkling entertainment provided by dressing up the detectives to infiltrate gay bars and strip clubs.

Recap:

A handsome young man is luring rich, closeted gay men to hotel rooms, where he ties them up, beats them, sodomizes them, and steals their valuables. The victims, all hoping to keep their secret lives secret, refuse to talk to SVU’s detectives. What are the police to do? Swathe Ice-T and Nick in their best Banana Republic and send them out as bait in a gay bar called Hotmale (what else?). This gambit doesn’t work (did anyone think it would?), but it did provide some fine eye candy.

Meanwhile, another man becomes a victim – and dies because of his weak heart. Using actual police methods like talking to witnesses and tracing stolen credit cards, our good detectives soon find the apparent murderer: a blond male stripper with the appropriately soft-core-porn name of Jeremy Jones.

[Read more...]

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Confidential informants can be great sources for police, but also present challenges to their police handlers, especially if they’re accused of crimes themselves. Tonight’s episode took that issue and ramped it up into a tight, twisty story that got a lot right.

Recap:

Pretty single mom Jessie gets ready for a date night and drives to her boyfriend Tommy’s house (which – note – is in Suffolk County, outside of our SVU’s warm and happy jurisdiction). Instead of dinner and movie, we jump to a 911 operator getting two calls about Tommy’s house: (1) a couple screaming, and, soon thereafter, (2) gunshots! The cops bust into Tommy’s house and find him bleeding on the floor, with a gun by his head. Jessie is kneeling over him. Despite remarkably thin evidence, the Suffolk police arrest her for murder.

Olivia is devastated by the news. See, Jessie is also a victim in a Manhattan rape case from Labor Day that’s still awaiting trial.

Back in September (picture this in faded-colors flashback mode), Jessie fought with Tommy, went for a girls night out, and was found unconscious, drunk, and bruised on the street. When she awoke in the hospital she at first said nothing happened. Then she said she didn’t know who hurt her. Then: she was kidnapped and raped by a stranger. Only on story #4 did Jessie finally say that she was raped and assaulted by Michael Provo, her sometimes hookup, who she phoned for a tipsy booty call after a night of clubbing. And, um, can we keep this on the down low, because Tommy would kill her if he ever found out. [Read more...]