There wasn't just teens though, it was people of all ages from all walks of life. If you see any of the pictures of people engaged in looting or violence, they are from 11 up to their 50's. Teens are getting the most rep for it as they've already been targeted in areas of extreme poverty as the trouble makers. But can you really not expect people who have very little to take advantage of such a scenario in a world that's driven my materialistic greed.
The riots were inevitable, and were predicted in the May 2010 election campaigns by Clegg. If only Clegg had shown a back bone aye and not aligned with the Tories. The Economy is in bits as well, The cuts that the Tories have enforced on us have only caused the market to stagnate even more so. This again was warned to us by Gordon Brown in his manifesto for the May 2010 Elections. An increase on VAT, increases in Food and Electricity bills have hit the poorest people the most. Once a few took to the streets it was a domino effect with people just wanting to get out there and trash the place. The riots almost being cathartic for some communities. Now whilst I do not condone the events, as I stated before, was it not inevitable something would happen in a world driven by nothing more than greed and corruption.
To echo Beard's comments on the lack of focus on Education of these youngsters as well. The teens in areas in and around London, Manchester and Birmingham often relied on the community centres that provided extra curricular training on things like music production, website design and many other things. Recently they have all seen such schemes shut down to the withdrawal of funding, failing to invest in people is what is going to kill this country. If only the government stopped filling their silk lined pockets with bribes, expenses claims and tax payers money such schemes would still be taking place. And if we put these recent events into the grand scheme of things, The damage that has been caused totals up to a value not even 1/10th of that paid to the banks for their greed and the poor investments they made. And the banking collapse was inevitable as all money is created from debt.