In other words, classifications for black defendants were no less accurate than scores for white defendants. The racial disparity simply indicates that black defendants had more of the traits associated with recidivism in past cases. It also could be that white defendants and black defendants broke the law with equal frequency, but that the white defendants were more likely to get away with it. In this group, the algorithm had classified black defendants as higher risk at about twice the rate of white defendants. There were more than four times as many black defendants in this group than white defendants.

Source: Washington Post August 18, 2016 16:00 UTC