Violent criminal blocks way with extremely scary axe (10)
I believe the answer is:
psychopath
'violent criminal' is the definition.
(type of violent person)
'way with extremely scary axe' is the wordplay.
'way' becomes 'path' (path is a kind of way).
'with' indicates putting letters inside.
'extremely' means to remove the middle letters (letters on the extremes of the word are used).
'axe' becomes 'chop' (chop with an axe).
'scary' with its centre taken out is 'sy'.
'sy'+'chop'='sychop'
'path' going around 'sychop' is 'PSYCHOPATH'.
'blocks' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. It may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for psychopath that I've seen before include "One who commits violent acts without guilt" , "One with abnormal or violent social behaviour" , "nut" , "One emotionally unstable, often violent" , "disturbed individual" .)