Thesis advisor: Lynda Lytle Holmstrom / Rape is a socially constructed behavior used in patriarchal societies to devalue women and ensure male supremacy. Being socially constructed means that the definition of rape can change. This thesis addresses the question of whether an established institution—television—can promote a more progressive definition of rape and help delegitimize it. It uses a feminist content analysis to examine the main themes on 14 episodes of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (SVU) aired from 2012-2015. It is qualitative and inductive in nature, approached from a grounded theory perspective. The data demonstrate that SVU does, to some extent, present a more progressive view of rape instead of perpetuating the common stereotypes of rape. Essentially, SVU represents a new variety of definitions of rape that are reflective of white, privileged, heterosexual and young women's experiences in the United States. Race, class, sexual orientation and identity are barely taken into account even though many social inequalities based on them characterize American life. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Sociology.

This study aims to investigate how the main characters of Law & Order: SpecialVictims Unit are portrayed by using a list of gender-coded attributes. By using aquantitative content analysis the authors of this study examined the behaviour of 14different characters over 19 seasons to find similarities and differences in how thefemale and male characters were portrayed. The findings showed that both thefemale and male characters had a higher amount of male coded attributes thanfemale coded attributes, and that the highest showing attributes varied very littlebetween both the individual characters and the gender groups as a whole. This kindof study has scarcely been done regardless of genre, and so it serves as a solidfoundation for future research.