Noel is caught up in criminal activities with the force (8)
I believe the answer is:
violence
'the force' is the definition.
(force can mean violence or aggression)
'noel is caught up in criminal activities' is the wordplay.
'is caught' becomes 'c' (cricket abbreviation).
'up' indicates anagramming the letters (letters get chucked up).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'criminal activities' becomes 'vie' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'noel'+'c'='noelc'
'noelc' with letters rearranged gives 'olenc'.
'olenc' going into 'vie' is 'VIOLENCE'.
'with' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for violence that I've seen before include "Btutality" , "Acts of aggression" , "Destructive force" , "Excessive use of force" , "Use of great force or intensity" .)