Shy cop transformed as violent criminal (6)
I believe the answer is:
psycho
'violent criminal' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'shy cop transformed' is the wordplay.
'transformed' indicates an anagram.
'shy'+'cop'='shycop'
'shycop' anagrammed gives 'PSYCHO'.
'as' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for psycho that I've seen before include "nuts" , "Nineteen sixty Hitchcock film" , "1960 horror film" , "Hitchcock's 1960 classic chiller" , "Hichcock film" .)