You might want to take a look at this
Essentially, dueling was prescribed to protect the honor of both parties. Since I know more about dueling in the 1800's, I'll speak mostly about that. Those duels were typically done with flintlock pistols, which were known to be not only inaccurate, but also unreliable. Many duels ended in missed shots, or other probable malfunctions, and everyone went home with their honor restored. Like I said, duels were held with the intent of settling an altercation. If you were to turn down a duel, you were generally labeled a coward. the extent of labeling and punishment for refusing a duel has been different over time, but, in 1800s North America, you got your own poster hung around town telling viewers that you refused a duel and that you were a coward. Mind you, this was quite serious (and dueling was also quite popular) in the American south.
Can anyone add some insight from European duels?
Can anyone touch on dueling in non-European societies?
I would like to extend this question: does anyone have any data or insight on the rate of death and wounding in duels? Was it something that only rarely resulted in a corpse and was primarily for show?
I'll chime in and give a little information:
Norbert Elias, in Mozart: The sociology of a genius tells an interesting case of a duel taking place during the waning years of the angient régime society.
When talking about the life of a burgher musician at court and the unimaginable disparity of rank between a musician and a noble, he mentions a musician getting on some sort of a quarrel with a noble, and challenging him to a duel. The noble, infuriated by receiving a challenge from an inferior ordered some of his men to ambush said musician and beat him to teach him good manners, and that was that.
To me it seems that the concept of a duel was meant to be between equals only, and peers sharing a certain tradition of upholding their honor and public image, namely groups that held the representation of their image as source of political power too, such as the Ancient Régime nobility or the whites of the american south.
Here is a pretty good account from Edgar Andrew Collard's column in the Montreal Gazette c1985. Excellent details regarding duelling in Montreal in the 19th century.