![Eric Berkowitz](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/9c5a189d-e047-47fb-b6a5-fb8194d0f3da/Eric-Berkowitz.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C1000%2C1000&w=290)
Eric Berkowitz is a historian, journalist, and human rights attorney who represents refugees seeking asylum based on their homosexuality and status as victims of extreme sexual violence in their home countries. His books, Sex and Punishment: Four Thousand Years of Judging Desire and The Boundaries of Desire: A Century of Good Sex, Bad Laws, and Changing Identities, examine the interplay between state power and the individual libido from the earliest human civilizations to the present day. Berkowitz is also a speaker on current sexual and legal issues. His journalistic work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, California Lawyer, The Washington Post, Huffington Post, AlterNet, and Salon.
Previously
![Deep Dive: The State of Sex in America—Changing Mores, Changing Morality?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/9cb54344-6b7d-4501-854e-3efafc3ffdee/27961752841_a7ca074b96_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C614%2C7360%2C4145&w=400)
As mainstream attitudes about sex and relationships are seemingly more casual than ever, precise communication between individuals is increasingly paramount. What's the state...
![Youth, Sex, and Limits](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/d25ca280-6ad6-4318-b094-4ea2c1593ff2/28039720745_c9045d8f62_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C891%2C6144%2C3461&w=400)
A general relaxation of sexual morals has run headlong into a decades-old push to protect children and teens—not only from predators, but from themselves. The results are some...