Legal Definitions - comparative disparity

Comparative disparity is a term used in constitutional law to describe the percentage of underrepresentation of a particular group among potential jurors on a venire, in comparison with the group's percentage of the general population.

For example, if African-Americans make up 12% of a county's population, and only 8% of the potential jurors on the venire, the absolute disparity of African-Americans is 4%. And the comparative disparity is 33%, because 4 divided by 12 is .33, or 33%.

The reason for calculating the disparity is to analyze a claim that the jury was not impartial because it was not selected from a pool of jurors that fairly represented the makeup of the jurisdiction.

Some courts criticize the comparative-disparity analysis, and favor an absolute-disparity analysis, because the comparative-disparity analysis is said to exaggerate the deviation.

Overall, comparative disparity is a way to measure whether a jury selection process is fair and unbiased.