Truancy and criminalization of behavior

I think a lot of people have problems when we talk (historically) about the criminilization of working class behavior versus "crime waves" that require new levels of policing. Regardless of the need for the ex-guild-style/newly industrialized capitalism to want to police working class behavior (loitering, public drunkeness, etc) because workers need to show up on time, today people just tend to focus on the fact that public drunkeness can be a nuisance (*cough*or a great tuesday *cough*) and that it is perfectly reasonable for the police to police this sort of thing. Reading Kristian Williams' Our Enemies In Blue, I was struck by the idea of truancy. Pick any mid-nineteenth century decade (say, the 1850s). A twelve year old wandering the streets on a week day would've been asked why he wasn't in the factory if anything at all. Same kid a hundred years later would be grabbed for truancy. His behavior is the identical, but it has been criminalized by the capitalist state. This needs to be polished up as a point (e.g. how would this example be different if it was an african-american kid or recent chinese immigrant in Chinatown?), but I think it points to something.
Speaking of which, I really need to point out the excellent website 360 Degrees. With a name like that, it kind of sounds like some new music magazine or cola marketing scheme, but in fact it is a great "web documentary" on prisons. Check out their timeline!