Awareness shown by individual probing punishment handed down (9)
I believe the answer is:
sentience
'awareness' is the definition.
(sentience is being aware or conscious)
'individual probing punishment handed down' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'individual' could be 'i' (Roman numeral for one, ie individual) and 'i' is found in the answer.
'punishment' could be 'sentence' (eg a prison sentence) and 'sentence' is present in the leftover letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'shown by' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sentience that I've seen before include "Feeling" , "Consciousness -- ten nieces (anag)" , "mind" , "Ability to feel or perceive" , "Ability to feel things" .)