Article about one female pickpocket (5)
I believe the answer is:
thief
'pickpocket' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'article about one female' is the wordplay.
'article' becomes 'the' (the 'definite article' part of speech).
'about' is an insertion indicator.
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'female' becomes 'f' (abbreviation).
'the' going around 'i' is 'thie'.
'thie'+'f'='THIEF'
(Other definitions for thief that I've seen before include "Pilferer" , "Larcenist" , "One who is fourth in line after a rich man" , "Crook" , "One who steals" .)