Curtilage is when the courts acknowledge that an owner has gone to the extreme to build a frame of protection around their home for privacy. Whereas, an open field is not recognized by the Fourth Amendment because the owner has left a free entrance to their home for an officer to enter without a warrant. Under those circumstances, an officer entrance upon a property cannot be considered as trespassing. For this reason, the concept of curtilage and open field are important in the criminal law, because it set guideline for an officer in determining if a warrant is needed base upon the privacy of the property(Hall, D.
