disparate impact
Unintentional discriminatory effect
Disparate impact is a legal concept describing policies or practices that appear neutral but disproportionately affect a protected group.
Unlike intentional discrimination, disparate impact focuses on outcomes rather than intent: The hiring test had a disparate impact on minority applicants.
The doctrine originated in employment law but extends to housing, lending, and education.
A practice with disparate impact may still be lawful if justified by business necessity.
- Title VIIEmployment discrimination prohibition statute
- faciallyConcerning the visage
- redliningRefusing loans by neighborhood
- standard deviationSpread around the mean
- systemic inequalityEmbedded societal unfairness
proxy · credit score · zip code · affirmative action · statistical significance · burden of proof · lending · fair lending · Americans with Disabilities Act · Civil Rights Act · housing · implicit bias · neutral · disproportionate · adverse effect · marginalization · plaintiff · hiring
- civil rightsequal protection, equal rights, Civil Rights Act, right to life, Voting Rights Act
- discriminationracism, systemic discrimination, Jim Crow laws, sexism, racial harassment
- labor lawlabor code, labor law, labor laws, labor standards, labour law
- discrimination lawanti-discrimination, nondiscrimination, gender bias, pay discrimination, discrimination lawsuit
- discrimination lawsuitsemployment discrimination, age discrimination, gender discrimination, disability discrimination, sexual harassment
- Environmental Justiceenvironmental racism, environmental rights, environmental policy, climate justice, social equity