Married woman at forefront of her country's crime (5)
I believe the answer is:
fraud
'crime' is the definition.
(fraud is a crime)
'married woman at forefront of' is the wordplay.
'married woman' becomes 'frau' (title for a married woman in German).
'at' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'forefront of' becomes 'd' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'frau'+'d'='FRAUD'
'her country's' acts as a link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for fraud that I've seen before include "Charlatan" , "Cheat" , "Swindle" , "Criminal deception" , "act of deception" .)