Denial by criminal caught breaking rule (13)
I believe the answer is:
contradiction
'denial' is the definition.
(contradiction is a kind of denial)
'criminal caught breaking rule' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'criminal' could be 'con' (abbreviation for 'convict') and 'con' is present in the answer.
'caught' could be 'ct' and 'ct' is found within the answer.
'rule' could be 'r' (legal abbreviation) and 'r' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'by' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for contradiction that I've seen before include "Conflicting statement" , "opposition" , "disagreement" , "Statement proclaiming the opposite" , "denial" .)