Law & Order: Criminal Intent season 1

The first season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, an American police procedural television series, was developed by Dick Wolf and René Balcer. It began airing on September 30, 2001, on NBC, a national broadcast television network in the United States. It is the second spin-off of the long-running crime drama Law & Order.

Law & Order: Criminal Intent follows the New York City Police Department's fictional Major Case Squad, which investigates high-profile murder cases. The first season of twenty-two episodes concluded its initial airing on May 10, 2002. Four actors received star billing in the first season: Vincent D'Onofrio, Kathryn Erbe, Jamey Sheridan, and Courtney B. Vance.

Episodes depict Detectives Robert Goren (D'Onofrio) and Alexandra Eames (Erbe) as the squad's lead investigators. Captain James Deakins (Sheridan) is the detectives' direct supervisor and head of the Major Case Squad. Assistant District Attorney Ron Carver (Vance) often attempts to obtain confessions from the suspects, rather than taking them to trial. Law & Order: Criminal Intent focuses on the actions and motives of the criminals, and it divides screen time equally between the suspects and victims and the police's investigation.

The season was filmed on location in New York City. Scenes set inside the Major Case Squad department were filmed in a studio at Chelsea Piers, Manhattan.

The season was nominated for four awards and was described by some reviewers as the most impressive of all the Law & Order series. It was sold to numerous television stations around the world, and it has been adapted into localized foreign versions in Russia and France. It has been syndicated in the US on a number of cable channels. A DVD box set of Season 1 was released in America on October 21, 2003, and episodes are available for purchase at the US iTunes Store and Amazon Video on Demand.