Rap sheet torn apart with glee in terse language (12)
I believe the answer is:
telegraphese
'language' is the definition.
(I know that telegraphese is a type of non-standard speech)
'rap sheet torn apart with glee in terse' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
an anagram of 'glee' is 'eleg' which is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for telegraphese that I've seen before include "Potted jargon" , "terse jargon" .)