Law and Order: Special Victims Unit has been around for years heading into its 20th season. NBC announced that they have ordered 13 episodes of Law and Order: Hate Crimes which will focus on various subjects set to premiere sometime in 2019.

Law and Order creator Dick Wolf and Law and Order: SVU showrunner Warren Leight are the creators of the new spinoff.

“As with all of my crime shows, I want to depict what’s really going on in our cities and shine a light on the wide-ranging victims and show that justice can prevail,” Wolf said about the storyline.

“Twenty years ago, when SVU began, very few people felt comfortable coming forward and reporting these crimes, but when you bring the stories into people’s living rooms — with characters as empathetic as Oliva Benson — a real dialogue can begin. That’s what I hope we can do with this new show in a world where hate crimes have reached an egregious level,” Wolf added.

Central Connecticut sophomore Amanda Welsh thinks the show will help spread awareness.

“I think focusing on hate crimes in a show would be a good thing because this way it brings awareness to the hate crimes that are actually happening around us today and maybe it will help start a change in what police will do about hate crimes,” Welsh said.

Adding on, “[the show is] needed because hate crimes aren’t taken as seriously as they need to be today and having a network focus on what is being said could be beneficial to stopping hate crimes.”

This is the seventh Law and Order Series. This series is based on New York’s actual Hate Crimes Task Force, the second oldest bias-based task force in the U.S.

“I’m extremely impressed by the actual men and women investigating these cases in a city as complicated and diverse as New York. The work they are doing puts them on the front lines in a battle for the soul of our city and nation. I’m thrilled about the chance to reunite with Dick and NBC to portray the reality of this crisis,” Leight said.

Lisa Katz, Co-President of Scripted Programming of NBC Entertainment believes the series is a good topic to explore.

“Considering that last year there was a double-digit rise in hate crimes in our 10 largest cities — the highest total in over a decade — it seemed like this topic is begging to be explored.”

CCSU sophomore Maria Vega believes the show may have a positive impact, but also sees a negative side.

“I feel like those shows are showing a reality that not a lot of people are aware of because people do not take discrimination against races as an actual problem,” Vega said.

Vega’s response to NBC being behind the push for the new series was, “I don’t think it’s okay [that] they want to force [the creators of the show] to [push for the creation].”

Viewers will have to tune-in in 2019 to see the how impactful the series will become.