Locus of scandal: criminal scope of it carrying force (4,6)
I believe the answer is:
post office
'locus of scandal criminal' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot see how one could define the other.
'scope of it carrying force' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'it' could be 't' (abbreviation. e.g. in 'tis) and 't' is found within the answer.
'force' could be 'office' (office is a kind of force) and 'office' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'pos' 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 post office that I've seen before include "Letter delivery service" , "organisation to facilitate communication" , "public building" .)