Jennifer "Jenny" Aschler is a woman who had been sexually abused since she was a child.
Background[]
When Jenny was a child, her mother remarried to a man who sexually abused her while her mother did not do anything about it. Eventually, her stepfather would use her to make child pornography, giving her the alias of "Lacy Unknown". As a result of the sexual abuse, Jenny ended up dropping out of school and began doing drugs. At one point, she had a boyfriend, Bobby Aschler, who passed her along to his brother Gary after she got pregnant with his child, whom Jenny later married. While they were married, Gary would abuse and rape Jenny, believing it was legal to do so because they were married. While on probation, Jenny was caught shoplifting and was arrested. Before she was imprisoned, she locked her daughter Maddie away in the apartment with food, not wanting to leave her with Gary, because she was afraid that he would abuse her too.
Downloaded Child[]
When Maddie was seen teetering near the edge of the balcony of the apartment and refused to come back inside, Amaro and Rollins are able to rescue her and Maddie reveals that her mother left her home alone. Benson and Amaro visit Jenny in prison to ask her why she left Maddie alone. When she asks when she can have Maddie back, Amaro tells her that she may not and reprimands her for leaving Maddie alone. Aschler then tells them she was afraid that Maddie would be abused if she left her with her husband. When Tutuola and Amaro trick Gary into confessing to abusing Jenny, they arrest him.
Benson then takes Jenny to see Dr. Peter Lindstrom. During therapy, Jenny reveals memories of being sexually abused when she was as young as fourteen, but she can't remember anything beyond that. When the detectives discover the child porn Jenny was used to make, A.D.A. Barba says the best they can do is to get Jenny restitution from the pedophiles who viewed the porn videos. When Jenny is shown the photos by the detectives, she asks if they were taken off the Internet but Rollins tells her that nothing can be taken off the Internet. Jenny then shuts down and leaves the precinct. Later on, while Benson is with Lindstrom, Aschler bursts in and offers sexual favors to Lindstrom while calling herself Lacy. Lindstorm and Benson are able to calm her down and remind her that her real name is Jenny, after which she breaks down crying.
Jenny is then taken to a private facility for recovery. When she seems to recover, she testifies at a hearing where a man was pleading guilty to possessing an obscene image of her as a child. After she makes a victim-impact statement, the defendant apologizes for his actions and pays $20,000 in restitution. Benson then shows Jenny additional cases that could result in more restitution, but when she realizes how many cases she would have to testify in, Jenny refuses to do so. Later, Barba is able to convince a millionaire who shared Jenny's photos online with other pedophiles to pay the full $4,000,000 in restitution and collect money from the rest of the pedophiles. When Jenny gets the money, Rollins tells her to make the money last and Jenny promises to do so. Jenny is then able to get Maddie back.