In most states, including California, young prostitutes continue to be charged with crimes despite a growing consensus that minors who engage in sex for pay are victims of sex trafficking rather than criminals. Dr. Ellen Wright Clayton, a professor of pediatrics and law at Vanderbilt University, said the optimal strategies for helping these young people are still being developed, but that training judges, lawyers and others to identify them is a first step. “What is really needed is a collaborative approach that directs people to services rather than prosecution,” she said. “It’s an enormous problem we’re only beginning to get the scope of.”

The Girls Court is part of a national movement to address the sex trafficking of minors domestically, many with a history of childhood abuse. Among the high-profile efforts are New York State’s new network of 11 statewide Human Trafficking Intervention Courts for those 16 years and up, and the passage of so-called Safe Harbor laws, in a small but growing number of states, that define sexually trafficked youth as victims rather than offenders.
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Efforts to come to grips with what many experts consider an epidemic vary widely across the country. New York State’s Safe Harbor law, the country’s first, classifies trafficked minors through age 17 as needing supervision rather than probation. In Los Angeles County, a special sex trafficking court diverts girls to a network of local foster care agencies and social service providers; meanwhile, the probation department now has a dedicated unit to “support young victims instead of locking them up when they run,” said Michelle Guymon, the department’s director.

The focused attention can give girls strength to confront long-buried emotional landmines. “Girls and women respond to consistency in relationships,” said Ms. Brown, who supervises the Alameda County Public Defender’s Juvenile Branch. Many flee their families to escape abuse, said Stephanie S. Covington, co-director of the Center for Gender and Justice in La Jolla. In adolescence, she said, “the risk for boys comes from people who dislike them: the police, their peers or a rival gang. In contrast, she said, “For girls, the violence in their lives comes from relationships — the person to whom she’s saying, ‘I love you.’ ”

Many of the young women grew up in Oakland near their predators. “These kids are considered high-value property by high-risk criminals,” said Julie Posadas Guzman, the former director of girls’ services for the San Francisco Juvenile Probation Department. “A 12-year-old is way more valuable than a 40-year-old with a crack habit.”