AI Governance Engineer
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Disparate impact

By Updated

A facially neutral practice that falls harder on a protected group. Under US Title VII the employer must show the practice is job related and consistent with business necessity, and loses if it refuses a less discriminatory alternative 1. The EU counterpart is indirect discrimination.

Developed in
ch. 16, Disparate treatment and disparate impact
ch. 20, Disparate treatment, disparate impact and proxies
Chapters
ch. 16, Fairness & XAI · ch. 20, Existing Law
Contrast with
Disparate treatment · Indirect discrimination
Source
1 numbered reference, listed below

Where it is used

3 chapters of the Body of Knowledge use the term. Each link opens the first section that does.

Disparate impact: mentions per chapter10 mentions of the term across 3 of the 23 chapters of the Body of Knowledge; the chapters the glossary cross-references are drawn solid.Cross-referenced chapterOther chapter08 Regulatory Map: 2 mentions08 Regulatory Map216 Fairness & XAI: 5 mentions16 Fairness & XAI520 Existing Law: 3 mentions20 Existing Law3No mentions in the other 20 chaptersSource: the Body of Knowledgev0.5.0
Disparate impact: mentions per chapter10 mentions of the term across 3 of the 23 chapters of the Body of Knowledge; the chapters the glossary cross-references are drawn solid.Cross-referenced chapterOther chapter000102030405060708 Regulatory Map: 2 mentions20810111213141516 Fairness & XAI: 5 mentions51617181920 Existing Law: 3 mentions320212223Source: the Body of Knowledge v0.5.0
Mentions per chapter How often each chapter names the term, with the chapters the glossary cross-references drawn solid. The longest bar is where to read the term in use; bars spread across many chapters mark a term that runs through the discipline.
Mentions as a table
Mentions of Disparate impact per chapter
ChapterMentionsCross-referenced
00 Preface0No
01 Definition0No
02 Why Now0No
03 Values & Principles0No
04 The Stack0No
05 Patterns0No
06 The Role0No
07 Maturity Model0No
08 Regulatory Map2No
10 Reading List0No
11 AI Defined0No
12 Governance Program0No
13 Risk Management0No
14 Development0No
15 Deployment0No
16 Fairness & XAI5Yes
17 Incidents0No
18 EU AI Act0No
19 Privacy & AI0No
20 Existing Law3Yes
21 AI Laws Worldwide0No
22 Principles & Standards0No
23 AI Agents0No

Sources

  1. [1] 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2 (Title VII: unlawful employment practices; 2000e-2(k) burden of proof in disparate-impact cases, business necessity and less discriminatory alternatives). Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School. 2026. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/2000e-2 (verified: secondary)

Definitions of legal terms paraphrase the cited text, which governs. Dated statements are as of .

Cite this term

García Aibar, J. (2026). Disparate impact. In AI Governance Engineering: The Thesis & Body of Knowledge (v0.5.0), Glossary. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22956197. https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/disparate-impact. CC BY 4.0

BibTeX

@misc{aige2026disparateimpact,
  author  = {Jorge García Aibar},
  title   = {{Disparate impact}},
  note    = {Glossary, AI Governance Engineering: The Thesis \& Body of Knowledge, version 0.5.0},
  year    = {2026},
  doi     = {10.5281/zenodo.22956197},
  url     = {https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/disparate-impact}
}