User Profile

--Character's age: I’d peg Benson at about a 38 or 39. Old enough to have seen a thing or two.
--Their squad: Special Victims Unit.
--If it's a non-canon character, physical description: Benson’s a canon character. (And thank goodness—describing Mariska Hargitay would be a feat unto itself. I’d be sitting here all night thinking of synonyms for “gorgeous.”)
--Family/Educational background of character: From the moment she took her very first breath, Olivia Benson has been a mistake. The product of a traumatic and unsolved rape, she passed her childhood under the care of a physically (and emotionally) abusive mother. Although she tried to establish a relationship with the woman past the haze of alcohol, Benson was unable to connect with her mother and for the most part spent her childhood quietly alone, trying not to draw too much attention to herself for fear of reminding her mother of the terrible ordeal that the elder Miss Benson had never been able to let go. Benson decided to pursue police work at a young age, setting her sights on the Special Victim’s Unit in hopes that she could spend the rest of her life helping people to cope with the horror of rape, from which her own mother never recovered.
--Personality--likes/dislikes: Olivia will be the first to tell you that she takes crap from no-one. At once both assertive and approachable, Benson has a knack for getting information out of reluctant witnesses or victims—like her partner Elliot said, “People trust her. They let her get close.” She is extremely compassionate and dedicated to her job, making it her personal goal to see that the victim receives justice; she also has a history of blindly sympathizing with the victims, sometimes to the extent where she will get herself in trouble to support them. She works especially well with children and has an obvious fondness for them, even though she has none of her own. When it comes to relationships, Olivia’s a little bit socially challenged; she’s married to the job and this has a huge effect on her personal life, rendering it basically nonexistent. The only relationship currently in her life is her close friendship with her partner, Elliot Stabler.
--Traits, Weaknesses, Quirks: Olivia’s tendency to hide her weaknesses and withdraw emotionally have led her to a very secluded and lonely life. She longs desperately to be a part of a family but lacks the trust to commit to anyone or anything, except her job and Elliot. She also has been known to worry that her rapist father has somehow passed down his aggression and emotional apathy to her, and that idea frightens her more than anything else.

I am not Olivia Benson or Mariska Hargitay (sadly). Detective Benson, along with all things Law & Order-related belong to NBC and Dick Wolf. This is a character journal for the Law & Order rpg, lawandorder_siu. For more information, please check out that community.

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