Children in Chains: On the Productive and Exploitative Tendencies of Representation in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Abstract

This paper explores the depiction of child enslavement in the television show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and how this portrayal is ambiguous as it both productively explores this issue and also exploits it for entertainment purposes. The author focuses on the program’s use of revictimization, the white savior trope, and its voyeuristic tendencies.