Here are general secondary sources for crime and punishment in the United States, and during its colonial times, as well as some more specific works on capital punishment. Works on transportation of convicts, prisons, and convict women are also listed in this finding aid under Crime & Punishment - Prisons, Crime & Punishment - Transportation, and Crime & Punishment - Women.
HV6598.A54 1978
Alix, Ernest Kahlar. Ransom Kidnapping in America, 1874-1974: The Creation of a Capital Crime.Carbondale, Il.: Southern Illinois University Press, 1978.
HV8699.U5 C3 1997
Capital Punishment in the United States: A Documentary History.Westport, Ct.: Greenwood Press, 1997.
KF9219.H39 1985
Henderson, Dwight F. Congress, Courts, and Criminals: The Development of Federal Criminal Law, 1801-1829. Westport, Ct.: Greenwood Press, 1985.
KF9219.M85 1994
Murchison, Kenneth M. Federal Criminal Law Doctrines: The Forgotten Influence of National Prohibition. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1994.
KF9225.P47 2000
Pestritto, Ronald J. Founding the Criminal Law: Punishment and Political Thought in the Origins of America. DeKalb, Il.: Northern Illinois University Press, 2000.
HV9955.M3 S45 1996r
Semmes, Raphael. Crime and Punishment in Early Maryland. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.
KF9390.A7 T74 1986
The Tree of Liberty: A Documentary History of Rebellion and Political Crime in America.Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986.
Revised ed., 1998 also available: KF9390 .A7T74 1998
KF9219.W43 1846
Wharton, Francis. A Treatise on the Criminal Law of the United States: Comprising a Digest of the Penal Statutes of the General Government and of Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Philadelphia: J. Kay, Jr., & Brother, 1846.
Also in microfiche.