‘Law & Order: SVU’ Star Mariska Hargitay Explains Why Crime Shows Are ‘Calming’

“Law & Order: SVU” star Mariska Hargitay said there’s a reason fans find violent crime shows soothing.

During an interview with Fox News Digital, the “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” star said franchise creator Dick Wolf should get most of the credit for the series’ popularity thanks to his “great writing.”

“Dick Wolf is truly a visionary,” the 59-year-old actress said while attending the 33rd Annual Colleagues Spring Luncheon on Tuesday. “And I think that’s a very singular thing to be a true visionary who understands our culture in a very deep way, but also understands it’s sort of ironic that a crime show would be actually calming in a way to our nervous system, knowing that somebody is out there taking care of it.”

“That our voices are heard and there are people that are on it. So that is it,” Hargitay said.

She went on to explain that people get a sense of satisfaction from seeing horrible crimes being solved.

“It’s a very sort of interesting dichotomy,” Hargitay said. “Because you think about a crime show, which normally should sort of upset your nervous system, actually can settle it down because of that. I think that we’re all fascinated with the human condition. We don’t understand how people can do the things that they do.”

Hargitay said, “But it’s a very deep question, which is we are very complex beings, and we all have a lot of parts, and we’re all capable of a lot of things. That’s why working on ourselves and integrating ourselves and integrating our shadow and our light is one of the most important things we can do in our evolution.”

“So I think that’s the key to it — is that we all know what we’re capable of, and we all have to take responsibility for our humanity.”

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The original “Law & Order” series ran for 20 seasons from 1990 until 2010 on NBC. It was rebooted in 2021 and was just renewed.

The popularity of the show inspired multiple spinoffs, including “Special Victims Unit,” “Criminal Intent,” “Trial by Jury,” “LA,” “UK,” “True Crime,” and “Organized Crime.”

Hargitay starred in “SVU” as Detective Olivia Benson since it began in 1999 and became an executive producer in 2016, the outlet noted. The series follows detectives working in the New York City Police Department’s Special Victims Unit. Benson and Detective Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) investigate crimes involving sexual assault and abuse. Many of the stories are inspired by real-life headlines.