Parents responsible fo kid's behaviour?

There was a story on the news last night about 4 kids 10-13 who were asked to leave a toy store. They came back the next day & burnt down the store + 3 adjoining stores.

Now,my niece is asking on f/b asking why everyone is blaming the parents for the kids doing this. She herself comes from a dysfunctional family & has a 12yo sister who goes out at night & smokes pot etc & this niece is 18 with 2 kids. I am not going to respond to her f/ post as I am not in f/b debates, but I do disagree with what she says.

I do think the parents have a lot to do with the actions of a kid that age. If any of my kids decided it was ok to burn down a store for revenge I would seriously have to look at my parenting skills. There seems to be this idea (in Aus anyway) that parents are restricted by the government in the way they can discipline their kids. Well, they can't abuse their kids, they can't wallop them around the head or break their bones, but they can administer discipline. Nor is it the school's fault. Kids are at home far longer than they are at school.

It is lazy parenting to blame everyone else when your kid goes off the rails. Sure, there are good families that produce a black sheep rebel, but from what I have seen, this is the exception rather than the rule & they are the ones that turn around after a good scare.

My observations suggest that the kids who really act up & continue to flout the law come from either a wealthy background where they have a massive sense of entitlment or a lower socio-economic background where the parents don't work & have the attitude that the world owes them a living.