Whether a variable is latent or explicit isn't really relevant to the question of algorithmic fairness. The link I provided gives the actual details of the met

Whether a variable is latent or explicit isn't really relevant to the question of algorithmic fairness. The link I provided gives the actual details of the method and findings; this is probably a more useful source for the details. The claim that the actual source of the difference is 'age' doesn't really make sense. There isn't enough of a difference in the number of young people between black and white populations to result in the differences found in the analysis. (I do agree that the actual attempt to control for age was poorly done; it really shouldn't have been done at all, since it had nothing useful to add to the analysis or results.) PS: It's 'COMPAS', not 'COMPASS'.