Reunion Online

Mariska Hargitay has been changed for good by "Law & Order: SVU" -- those are her words -- because of Detective Olivia Benson's experiences.

For anyone who has worked on issues of violence against women, this should serve as a wake-up call that the work is far from done. For anyone who works on social change, it serves as a reminder that monitoring implementation of hard-won laws is critical.

In the quest to catch violent perps, rape kits can be a key ally – but only if they're tested.

Every year, thousands of individuals take the courageous step of reporting their rape to the police.

Evidence relating to thousands of rape cases has been neglected for years in the US. Now 'the toughest woman in Detroit' is determined to do something about it.

Every year, thousands of individuals take the courageous step of reporting their rape to the police. They overcome the terrible, misplaced social stigma of being the victim of sexual violence, they overcome the warnings sometimes uttered by the rapist to keep silent, they overcome the suggestions that these issues ought not to be spoken of, and they speak up.

Last year, a FedEx delivery truck arrived at the Detroit Police Department storage facility to pick up the first batch of untested rape kits bound, finally, for crime labs. Thus began Detroit’s massive task of processing its rape kit backlog – the more than 11,000 kits that were left behind to languish in a police warehouse, some for more than two decades.

Mariska Hargitay sits down with George Stephanopoulos and Hamptons Magazine to discuss how her role on the hit NBC series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has influenced her life over the past 14 years.

Emmy-award winning actress Mariska Hargitay stops to talk to Julie Moran on the red carpet at the gala for her Joyful Heart Foundation. Hollywood Watch was there to capture all the star studded support.

With Wednesday’s announcement that the State of Michigan may provide $4 million in funding to help test old rape kit evidence in Detroit, Gov. Rick Snyder and Attorney General Bill Schuette made it clear that preventing and prosecuting sexual assaults in Detroit is a priority.