Surge of lawlessness, on the beaches perhaps? (5,4)
I believe the answer is:
crime wave
'surge' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to natural events as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
I cannot understand how the remainder of the clue works.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for crime wave that I've seen before include "series of offences" , "Sudden rise in offences" , "Surge in offences" , "multitude of sins" , "Surge in lawbreaking" .)