Second attack involving head whipping boy (9)
I believe the answer is:
scapegoat
'whipping boy' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'second attack involving head' is the wordplay.
'second' becomes 's' (common abbreviation).
'attack' becomes 'goat' (go at).
'involving' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'head' becomes 'cape' (both can mean a piece of land jutting over the sea).
's'+'goat'='sgoat'
'sgoat' enclosing 'cape' is 'SCAPEGOAT'.
(Other definitions for scapegoat that I've seen before include "Can carrier" , "Patsy" , "One blamed for another's mistakes" , "Someone to blame" , "One blamed for others' mistakes" .)