Robbers finally caught and punished (8)
I believe the answer is:
strapped
'punished' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are past participle verbs, I cannot see how one could define the other.
'robbers finally caught' is the wordplay.
'finally' says to take the final letters.
'caught' becomes 'trapped' (trapping is a kind of catching).
The final letter of 'robbers' is 's'.
's'+'trapped'='STRAPPED'
'and' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for strapped that I've seen before include "Secured; short of money" , "Needy - secured" , "Like one who may need a loan" , "- - for cash (hard up)" , "whipped" .)