Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (season 16)

Orion Bay clothing line press rep Carla Cannon (Kelley Missal) tells reporters she was raped by basketball superstar Shakir "The Shark" Wilkins (Henry Simmons). However, the authenticity of her story and the stories of other women is questioned by Carisi and leaves ADA Barba with a shaky case. As the trial begins, the case starts to fall apart and more than just family secrets of Orion Bay's billionaire owner Orion Bauer (Stacy Keach) and his daughter (Teri Polo) are revealed.

• Inspired by The Standard, High Line elevator incident, The Donald Sterling racist comments controversy, The David Howard racist comments controversy.

Amaro reports to the scene of a car crash where Hollywood starlet Tensley Evans (Stevie Lynn Jones) tries to flirt her way out of trouble. Amaro's by-the-book handling allows for him to be transferred back to the SVU team, just in time to investigate Evans for the statutory rape of a 15-year-old boy. As Barba pushes forward with her trial for rape, Benson begins to suspect underlying issues that led to Evans' actions, which leads the squad to a producer (Brian d'Arcy James) who has a troubling history.

• Cameo appearance by Hoda Kotb as TV anchor
• Inspired by The Bryan Singer sexual abuse allegations.
• Inspired by the life and legal troubles of Lindsay Lohan.

Holden March (John Karna), a lovelorn, socially awkward young man, begins to exact revenge on the women he believes have wronged him, which soon escalates to murder. When Detectives Amaro and Rollins find Holden with hostages at a local school, they soon find out how dangerous a desperate man can be. Meanwhile, Benson deals with pressure from the newly appointed Deputy Chief William Dodds (Peter Gallagher) while Noah is hospitalized.

• Episode inspired by the Elliot Rodger murders, The Platte Canyon High School hostage crisis.

Evie Barnes (Hannah Marks) answers a modeling ad hoping to make money for college tuition, but it quickly turns into pornography. When college students discover her double life, they force themselves on Evie at a party, resulting in their arrest for rape. Although she is not the one on trial, Benson and Barba fight to prove her innocence in the courtroom.

• Episode inspired by the case of Belle Knox.

When a babysitter's ghost stories lead to two girls going missing and another severely injured, Benson and the SVU detectives work to locate a suspect and decipher fact from fiction.

• Episode inspired by the Slender Man stabbing

Benson and SVU get a new lead on a missing child pornography victim from Sergeant Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) of the Chicago Police Department. When things become personal for CPD Detective Erin Lindsay (Sophia Bush), she and her partner, Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer), travel to New York to lend a hand in the investigation.

Detective Tutuola discovers security camera footage of a domestic dispute between a famous sportscaster (Chad Coleman) and his girlfriend (Meagan Good). While Fin and Benson dive into the couple's life, Barba tries to convince the woman to press charges.

• Cameo appearance by Hoda Kotb as TV anchor
• Inspired by the Ray Rice domestic abuse scandal

When a series of young girls are assaulted, Rollins connects the pattern to cases she worked in Atlanta, but discovers that none of the rape kits were tested. Returning to Atlanta to interview a victim believed to have been assaulted by their suspect, she has an awkward reunion with her former boss, Atlanta Deputy Chief Charles Patton (Harry Hamlin). While the detectives connect the pattern to other cities with untested rape kits, Benson faces scrutiny at CompStat from Deputy Chief Dodds and the NYPD brass.

• Inspired by Based on the nationwide rape-kit backlog, The Naga Raja Thota case.

Atlanta Deputy Chief Patton and his new detective, Reese Taymor (Dreama Walker), visit New York for a sex crimes conference. After the conference, Taymor reports being raped in her hotel, leading Benson and SVU to question her fellow visiting Atlanta police officers. When Rollins discovers a personal connection to Taymor, Barba seeks Rollins' help in court, which forces her to disclose a secret she has worked hard to hide.

• Inspired by The Russell Williams case.

A young woman (Madison Grace) sneaks out to attend a party with her celebrity crush, Scott Russo. Things take a turn for the worst when the teenager is found sexually assaulted and left for dead in an alley. Russo and his manager (Patti LuPone) are then suspects when security footage of the party goes missing, only to turn up on a gossip website. When the website's CEO refuses to hand over the footage to the squad, Barba fights to get the truth by having the man arrested for withholding evidence.

• Inspired by The James Franco flirt controversy, The controversial tabloid news website TMZ.

Benson and Rollins treat a rape victim, (Haley Lu Richardson), found with her clothes torn, who claims to have been raped in a pizzeria bathroom. With a criminal record and a pending lawsuit against the NYPD, the precinct is short on evidence and the suspect is released. Enraged, Jenna's father (Jamie McShane) conducts his own investigation, which could change the family's lives and make SVU's job harder.

• Inspired by The Central Park Five lawsuits, The death of Eric Garner, The Bill Cosby sexual assault cases, The John Schneeberger case.

Video game developer Raina Punjabi (Mouzam Makkar) ignores warnings from online predators as the release date of her game arrives. When a female employee is soon assaulted at a game convention, the detectives ask Punjabi to halt the game's release. When she refuses, Fin and SVU must race to protect her from technically skilled predators that want to see Punjabi out of the gaming business.

• Episode inspired by the Gamergate controversy.

While undercover to destroy a sex trafficking ring, Carisi encounters Martha Thornhill (Lili Taylor). She explains she has been disguising herself as a madame in the organization in order to try to find and save her daughter, Ariel, who had been kidnapped. She eventually gives up working alone and asks SVU to help her. As a team, they try to break down the pimp and his cohorts, while Ariel remains missing, and discover they may have some help on the inside from an old friend. Meanwhile, Dr. Warner discovers that the pimp is Noah's biological father and alerts Benson.

• Inspired by The Marita Verón case and the story of Susana Trimarco, Based on the story of Arron Kimbrell.

Walter Briggs (Robert Vaughn), a celebrity author, is put in the middle of a feud between his sixth wife, Charmaine (Marcia Cross), and his daughters over his welfare, sparked by an accusation that Charmaine has been sexually abusing her husband by giving him erectile dysfunctional medication without his knowledge. When Walter is hospitalized for a heart attack, Charmaine removes him from the hospital against medical advice before any tests can be conducted. A subsequent heart attack causes Walter's death, prompting Barba to pursue manslaughter charges against Charmaine. During the trial, a video tape that Walter recorded prior to his dementia is released, revealing his feelings and wishes for his family. Meanwhile, Barba struggles with his decision to put his grandmother in a retirement home.

• Inspired by yhe death of Casey Kasem.

Skip Peterson (Rob Morrow), a television host, broadcasts an interview with Heather Manning, a college student, who claims to have been gang raped in a fraternity house. Manning's story goes viral and the case quickly turns into a she-said, they-said dilemma, with pressure on SVU to open a real investigation. The lack of a rape kit, the shakiness of the victim and varying numbers of suspects result in the case being dismissed.

• Episode inspired by the fallout from Sabrina Erdely's discredited Rolling Stone article "A Rape on Campus".

Savannah Biel's (Hayden Tweedie) pornographic photos quickly go viral in Tribeca High School after an underage sex party. A measles outbreak stops Barba's attempts to arrest the suspects and Benson is hit with reality when Noah contracts the illness. While dealing with Noah's situation, Benson investigates the group of mothers who have lied about their children's medical records. Meanwhile, Amaro learns some worrisome news about his son.

• Inspired by The MMR vaccine controversy.

Benson and CPD Sgt. Voight lead their teams in the investigation of a rape-murder case that is frighteningly similar to a case from New York a decade ago. While searching for the suspect, one of Chicago's own is kidnapped, intensifying SVU's mission to help Voight's team locate the man.

This episode concludes a crossover with Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D. that begins on "We Called Her Jellybean" and continues on "The Number of Rats". It is included on the Chicago Fire Season 3 and Chicago P.D. Season 2 DVD sets.

• Inspired by The Ted Bundy case, The Long Island serial killer case.

Bayard Ellis (Andre Braugher) asks the SVU squad to reopen the investigation of a man (Glenn Plummer) who was convicted of incest and rape when the man's daughter (Samira Wiley), a recovering addict, recants her original testimony, claiming it was all a lie that her mother forced her to say in court. When the original motion to vacate the charges is denied, the squad turns to retired Captain Cragen (Dann Florek) for insight in the case and uncover evidence that was never presented during the original trial.

• Inspired by The Chaneya Kelly case.

Owen Farhidi, an 8-year-old boy, is kidnapped at school. After receiving a ransom request, Owen's mother, Dana, contacts SVU for help. Amaro works with the mother and her ex-husband, Sam, when footage proves the victim knew his abductor. The strain between the estranged couple threatens the investigation until Benson and Amaro convince one spouse to turn against the other. Meanwhile, pressure from One Police Plaza for a higher-ranking commanding officer at SVU leads Benson to consider taking the Lieutenant's exam.

• Based on a Lincoln County, Missouri family's staged kidnapping of their son to educate him about "stranger danger".

After expressing interest in taking the upcoming Sergeant's exam, Amaro learns from Benson that One Police Plaza does not want to promote him as he is considered "damaged goods" due to his involvement in several past incidents. As Johnny D's (Charles Halford) criminal case finally goes to trial, Benson goes against Barba's advice by disclosing that Johnny is the biological father of Noah, endangering the final stages of the adoption. A disruption during the trial grants Johnny the opportunity to grab an officer's gun; he kills one court officer and wounds Amaro, the judge, and another officer, but Amaro returns fire and kills him. Realizing that he is unlikely to advance within the NYPD and that the department may use his injuries to force him into early retirement, Amaro resigns in order to move to California so he can be closer to his children.

• Based on the story of Arron Kimbrell, The Fulton County courthouse shooting.