There have been thousands of books written by smarter men than me dealing with this question. Even so the question may never be fully answered on this side of eternity but I thought that since one of the areas I deal with on this blog is Theology I would take a stab at it.
The reason God allows evil is because he created being endowed with free will. God did not create puppets and this goes for the angels in heaven. The beginning of evil begins with the rebellion of Satan. Satan was created with the same free will and rebelled against God. After Satan's Fall he sought to tempt man and bring man down with him. When this happened original sin entered the world and creation. Thus bringing disorder to what had been an orderly creation. Satan threw a wrench in the works so to speak. Man was by no means an Innocent participant. Man made a free will decision to disobey God and conspired with Satan in this rebellion. The difference is that Satan's fall is complete since his rejection was complete. Mans fall was not complete, this is why Jesus was able to come and redeem us.
The consequences of that primordial rebellion remains and man is still a fallen Creature and still endowed with free will. Ultimately though Evil as a result of free will both Human and angelic is permitted by God as a manifestation of his greater glory.
The truth if this last statement is made manifest in the Paschal Mystery. The Paschal mystery is the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. In the paschal Mystery we see evil in its purest form. Jesus a man with no sin is betrayed by Judas (and act of Free will) condemned by the Sanhedrin and Roman authorities (all acts of free will) to die the most horrible death possible (as seen on the Movie the Passion). It took this act of pure evil to bring forth the manifest glory of God in the resurrection.
In short evil is allowed (not caused) by God because he allows for free will, which is abused by both man and angelic being, in order that his greater Glory is made manifest.
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