Girls Court brings an all-hands-on-deck approach to the lives of vulnerable girls, linking them to social service agencies, providing informal Saturday sessions on everything from body image to legal jargon, and offering a team of adults in whom they can develop trust. And while still in its early years, the system is showing promise.

Founded two and a half years ago and carved out of the existing juvenile court, the Girls Court is for young women considered most at risk, especially those forced into prostitution. It is part of a network of a half-dozen or so Girls Courts around the country, each with a different emphasis. The results have been encouraging: The court in Hawaii, a program where both parents and girls attend counseling for a year, has led to a marked decrease in detentions, according to a 2011 evaluation. The Orange County Girls court, which was started in 2009, intervenes in the lives of teenage girls in long-term foster care, with preliminary studies suggesting better grades and fewer placements.

“It’s a unique alignment between adversaries,” Laurel Bellows, a Chicago lawyer and co-chairwoman of the American Bar Association’s anti-trafficking task force, said of the court’s collaborative approach. “These are not easy victims to deal with.”

“It’s changed me,” Toni said of the court. “Without it, I probably would have been in jail, dead or somewhere getting beaten up by some dude.”

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.”