Monica Phelps is found dead in her apartment, her son Nathan hiding in the closet behind her body. Detectives soon link Monica's death to philanthropist Ted Carthage, who runs an organization dedicated to helping people get off the streets. Benson is certain that Carthage is the killer, but a shaky ID from Nathan puts him back on the street. After Nathan kills Carthage himself, Sophie Devere argues that Nathan committed the killing because he saw Carthage shoot his mother -- something the gun manufacturers don't like.

The episode was rated 7.59 from 227 votes.

The discovery of the bodies of two young gay men who were both meth addicts as well as victims of a new strain of AIDS that can kill its victims in less than a year leads to an investigation. Tutuola learns that his son, Ken, is gay, and has difficulty accepting it, even though he and Benson end up going to Ken for help with infiltrating an anti-meth group. The group's leader, Gabriel, soon becomes their top suspect when the squad realises that the two men died because they passed the disease on.

The episode was rated 7.61 from 223 votes.

The team investigates when young Carly Hunter disappears while walking home from school one day. While processing evidence found at the scene, Warner realises that the little girl has leukemia, and they need to get her home as soon as possible to begin treatment. Despite the ransom drop going wrong, the detectives are able to find the little girl thanks to evidence O'Halloran finds at the scene, but as she tells her story to Stabler and her mother, it soon becomes clear that her kidnapper is someone very close to home. Stabler and Warner end up becoming hostages when the kidnapper approaches Jake Hunter directly.

The episode was rated 7.62 from 221 votes.

Benson saves April Troost from committing suicide, but feels responsible when Troost dies during the trial of the man she accuses of raping her and getting her pregnant. It isn't long before detectives learn that Barclay Pallister wasn't the only man April picked up in a bar who has no recollection of sleeping with her, and the squad realizes that Troost was no victim. Their search takes them from prospective parents looking to adopt her child to the men she drugged and accosted to the sperm center she used to work at, which ends up at the center of the case. This crossover continues on Law & Order S16E02 Flaw (II).

The episode was rated 7.63 from 249 votes.

Twenty years after being convicted of the rape of a teenage girl, Ray Schenkel is released, much to the dismay of retired detective William Dorsey. When a teenage girl is raped on the route Schenkel would have taken home, Stabler goes undercover as a recently paroled sex offender so that he can get into the same therapy group as Schenkel, and the same halfway house. Cragen worries that Stabler may be getting in over his head.

The episode was rated 7.64 from 254 votes.

Doug Waverly and Nick Pratt are charged with rape and murder in the disappearance of Canadian student Jennifer Durning after Nick's cousin, Jason King, claims that while he had consensual sex with her that night the other two raped her. A stray pubic hair leads Novak to Keith Willis, a drunk who was paid off by the boys to get Jennifer out of the hotel and who later saw the boys kidnap her, but Willis exactly fit to be a witness as his mind has gone after years of alcohol abuse. Jason King disappears. Although they are able to find a bug in Donnelly's office, they are not able to prove that it was placed there by Pratt or Waverly. Judge Donnelly is forced to dismiss the case against the two boys since there is no case without Jason's testimony.

The episode was rated 7.66 from 233 votes.

When an eight-year-old propositions a male classmate, Stabler and Tutuola are called in to investigate the case and soon learn that Jake Winnock's father spent seven years in prison for molesting his older brother, Teddy. D.N.A. tests clear Gregory Hensal of abusive his son, but implicate Jake's older brother, whom detectives soon learn has been running his own personal Internet pornography site. T.A.R.U. tech Ruben Morales joins the detectives in their search for Teddy after he goes missing, but his own guilt about his nephew's molestation after being raped by an online predator he met using the computer Morales had given him colors his judgment when dealing with one of the suspect's.

The episode was rated 7.67 from 243 votes.

After sixteen-year-old Lauren Westley loses her unborn child due to a severe abdominal beating, her father's insistence that Lauren was raped leads detectives to the baby's father, but it isn't long before the detectives realise that Lauren was an active party in her own beating, and the two teens had found it necessary to take the steps they did because the abortion clinic kept putting off Lauren's request for an appointment. Novak faces a tough opponent in her own office when she and Branch disagree over the appropriate action to be taken against Wayne Mortens, the young girl's boyfriend.

The episode was rated 7.69 from 234 votes.

After the body of Vicky Riggs is found, Benson and Stabler delve into her private life and finally learn that in addition to being a respected lawyer, she was also a stripper. A surveillance photo leads them to Linus McKellen, her boss' husband, who was also having an affair with her. There isn't enough evidence to prove he murdered Vicky, but when Vicky's co-worker at the club, Josie Post, is also found murdered, DNA proves that McKellen's semen was found in her body, despite his disabled wife Tessa's conviction that he would never murder anyone. Suspicion turns on Tessa herself once the detectives interview the only man who seems capable of having committed the murders.

The episode was rated 7.73 from 214 votes.

When a teenager and her younger sister end up in the hospital after a day at the park, detectives learn that both girls were abducted from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina along with a third sister who is still missing. Despite the interference of a local reporter, Jackson Zane, detectives are able to catch the kidnapper, a known pedophile, and recover the girl, but when Alvin Dutch dies and the autopsy determines it was Anthrax, Benson puts everything on the line so that she can get the truth out there.

The episode was rated 7.77 from 224 votes.

After Jamie Hoskins falsely accuses two classmates of rape after a consensual act then hits nine pedestrians during an attempted suicide, medical tests reveal she has been taking medication for bipolar disorder and stopped her pills a week earlier. Jamie is charged with murder and released on her own recognizance after she agrees to take her medication, but after rock star Derek Lord, who is well known for his negative views on psychiatry, gets involved and begins spearheading her defense, Jamie again stops taking her medication. Novak is sympathetic to Jamie, but Jamie's insistence on following Derek Lord's advice leaves Novak with no choice but to take the case to trial.

The episode was rated 7.78 from 204 votes.

Ken Randall calls Benson for help after he's picked up in an alley late at night. He claims that he was looking for a body after overhearing a man talk about murdering a woman and dumping her body while he was at the bar that night. Tutuola is upset that no one informed him, and determined to clear his son's name even though Ken immediately gets his own lawyer. Tutuola turns his eye on Ken's cousin, Darius Parker, who was with Ken that night and has been in and out of trouble for years, and after Ken voluntarily submits his DNA to clear his name, a shocking family connection between Darius and Ken is revealed. Darius confesses to having murdered the woman and her baby, but his confession is out because no one had contacted his lawyer.

The episode was rated 7.79 from 216 votes.

A manhunt ensues when Victor Paul Gitano, a recently released sex offender, kidnaps two children after killing the rest of their family. Benson and Stabler pursue Gitano only to find their own relationship challenged as both experience opportunities where they put their personal relationship ahead of their job. After having her throat slashed, Benson requests for a new partner when she hears what Stabler has to say about their relationship and their job.

The episode was rated 7.83 from 223 votes.

After a six-year-old boy dies in a school shooting, detectives trace the gun used back to a white supremacist's gun shop. Munch and Tutuola both face hatred and prejudice from the major suspects in the case, but their investigation soon takes them from the man who pulled the trigger back to the gun shop owner, who makes no bones about his hatred of anyone who isn't white.

The episode was rated 7.90 from 243 votes.

In the episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit titled "911", Olivia Benson is on her way out for the evening when a call comes in from a little girl who says she's all alone. Benson is drawn deeper into the little girl's life, and although the other officers begin to suspect the whole thing may be some sick joke, Benson is convinced that the little girl is the real deal. Through talking to Maria, Benson is able to get enough information to have a place to start, but Maria's captor has been careful with his electronics, making it difficult to find the little girl.

This episode is regarded as one of the best of the entire show, and it's not hard to see why. Even knowing the outcome, the episode is able to keep viewers in distress the entire time. While the writers used a convenient trick of having Maria repeat a rhyme for the officers to have a conversation and then Benson repeating back some phrases to convince Maria she was listening, the episode is still able to keep the suspense high.

The episode was rated 8.16 from 280 votes.