This show introduces the Special Victims Unit, a new elite squad of NYPD detectives who investigate sexually related crimes.

[Looking through a victim's purse for ID]
Olivia Benson: No jewelry. I always carry at least a pair of earrings in my purse.
Elliot Stabler: Yeah, like you carry a purse.
Olivia Benson: That's 'cause you carry it for me.
Elliot Stabler: Heh...
Det. Elliot Stabler: [sees Warner enter the restaurant where he and Olivia are eating lunch] An ME out of the lab? It must be big.
M.E. Melinda Warner: I got the report back from the contents of the vomit.
Det. Olivia Benson: Am I going to want to stop eating for this?
M.E. Melinda Warner: Roast beef, mozzarella cheese, corn and raisins. Luckily, it had only been in the stomach a few hours, so it was only partially digested.
Det. Olivia Benson: All right, I'm done.
[pushes her salad away. Elliot shrugs and takes it]
[opening narration]
Narrator: In the criminal justice system, sexually based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories.
Fin Tutuola: [everyone is staring at him after he has just explained what 'sex on the DL' is] Don't look at me, I just know stuff.
Det. Olivia Benson: Your one night as a bachelor and you go to the grocery store? That's lame.
Det. Elliot Stabler: [shrugs] A grocery store with strippers.
Neighbor: [a snoopy neighbor witnessed a rape and didn't report it] Do I need a lawyer?
Elliot Stabler: For being a peeping tom? No, you just need a shrink.
[after he lost on a game]
John Munch: Damn it. I died.
[Fin grabs the controller]
Fin Tutuola: Let me see me this.
[repeated line when suspects give a "great" excuse for what they've done]
ADA Casey Novak: Is that the best you can come up with?
M.E. Melinda Warner: [performing an autopsy with the detectives present] No fluids present. Tests show spermicide common in condoms.
[removes an organ from the body and weighs it]
Elliot Stabler: This is fun.
Capt. Donald Cragen: What would it take to get a blanket DNA on an entire facility?
ADA Alexandra Cabot: A constitutional amendment.
Fin Tutuola: [Munch starts one of his theories... ] Don't get him started on one of his conspiracy theories!
Capt. Donald Cragen: My wife was on an Orlando turnaround as a flight attendant, and I was home, scrubbing algae off the tiles around the swimming pool that we never used, the one that got me into hot water with Internal Affairs, because 'what's a cop doing with an in-ground pool", right?, and then the phone rang, the call she always expected, always dreaded.
Det. Monique Jefferies: Are you gonna eat this?
John Munch: Suppose we say yes.
Det. Monique Jefferies: Suppose I was just being polite.
John Munch: That would be a first.
Brian Cassidy: Go ahead, Munch doesn't eat veggies
Det. Monique Jefferies: Really? I heard that's not the only thing John doesn't... eat.
ADA David Goreman: So you're an expert on sex crimes - is that correct?
Brian Cassidy: Well, we all have something to learn...
ADA David Goreman: I'm sure. Can you tell us the technical, or 'psycho-sexual' term, if you will - for fondling a stranger?
Brian Cassidy: [thinking] ... Fromage?...
[audience giggles]
ADA David Goreman: I believe it's "frottage".
Brian Cassidy: Right, right - "frottage".
Det. Elliot Stabler: [to Fin during a card game] What's your favorite kind of torture?
Olivia Benson: You're under arrest for attempted kidnapping and reckless endangerment. You have the right to remain silent. If you give up that right, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.
Det. Elliot Stabler: [screaming] I got an F!
ADA Casey Novak: This changes everything.
Capt. Donald Cragen: You don't get to pick the vic.
John Munch: Not to mention the fact that I lost a wife after less than one night of connubial bliss to someone who was not only a detective but a member of my own squad.