Criminal force probes chap instructed by director (10)
I believe the answer is:
malefactor
'criminal' is the definition.
(I know that criminal can be written as malefactor)
'chap instructed by director' is the wordplay.
'chap' becomes 'male' (chap can mean a man).
'instructed by director' becomes 'factor' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'male'+'factor'='MALEFACTOR'
'force probes' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for malefactor that I've seen before include "bad person?" , "Wrongdoer" , "One doing wrong" , "culprit?" , "Criminal, evil-doer" .)