Pious type, soft on crime (6)
I believe the answer is:
parson
'pious type' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'soft on crime' is the wordplay.
'soft' becomes 'p' (musical abbreviation for piano, 'soft').
'on' means one lot of letters go next to another (in a down clue, letters appear on others).
'crime' becomes 'arson' (crime of illegally starting a fire).
'p'+'arson'='PARSON'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for parson that I've seen before include "man of the church" , "Churchman" , "service provider" , "One with benefice" , "Aprons (anag.)" .)