Delay punishment given to criminal (4,3)
I believe the answer is:
time-lag
'delay' is the definition.
(a time lag is a delay)
'punishment given to criminal' is the wordplay.
'punishment' becomes 'time' (time in prison).
'given to' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'criminal' becomes 'lag' (slang term for a prisoner).
'time'+'lag'='TIME-LAG'
(Other definitions for time-lag that I've seen before include "Period between two connected events" , "Gap between linked events" , "Delay between events" , "Interval between linked events" , "Delay, wait" .)