America — scratch its skin to find this underworld activity? (9,5)
I believe the answer is:
organised crime
'america scratch its skin to find this underworld' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot tell whether it can be defined by this definition.
'activity?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'activity?' could be 'crime' (crime is a kind of activity) and 'crime' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'organised' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for organised crime that I've seen before include "taking things in systematic way?" , "Mafia?" .)